


Over The Edge

by Rod



Category: Hollyoaks, Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alderley Edge, Changed world, First Time, M/M, Magic, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-05
Updated: 2013-08-05
Packaged: 2017-12-22 13:53:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 25,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/913967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rod/pseuds/Rod
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jake and Justin wake up to find that the world has changed around them.  Can they keep from killing each other before they figure out what is going on?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer:** Not mine. The Hollyoaks characters belong to Lime Pictures and Channel 4, the Merlin characters belong to the BBC and a long body of myth and storytelling. There's also a fairly large dose of Peter Dickinson's _Changes_ trilogy (highly recommended reading!) here as well.
> 
> Rest assure that I have treated the _Merlin_ elements of this story with all the attention to accuracy and detail as its writers did to their sources, i.e. not much. Don't be surprised if things are different to how you remember them on TV.

Jake woke up with a mouth that tasted like someone had been using it as an ashtray and a head to match. He couldn't remember much about last night, which figured. He had gone out into Chester for the evening, needing just that once to get away from both Nancy and his family before they smothered him with concern about not being able to get a job. He had drunk a lot obviously, and he had no idea how he'd got home.

If he had got home; given that he was lying fully clothed on a mattress with no sheets, blankets or anything, the odds were good that he was somewhere else entirely. He tried to sit up experimentally, but flopped back with a groan as his head and stomach both objected.

There was an answering groan from across the room. "God, that hurts," a gravelly voice moaned.

"You can say that again," Jake croaked back. He rolled himself carefully to the side so that he could see a bit more of the room he was in.

It didn't look great. There were no windows in the dingy brick walls, the only illumination coming from a dim electric bulb hanging from the ceiling. Plain wooden steps rose in one corner — he must be in someone's cellar. Whoever's it was couldn't have used it much, because thick dust and rubble lay strewn across the floor between the two stained mattresses.

The man lying on the other mattress was also fully clothed. There was something familiar about the dirty blond hair, but in his hung-over state Jake couldn't place him. Then he rolled over with the same careful moves Jake had used earlier, and Jake instantly recognised Justin Burton.

Jake shot upright, fully intent on murdering the man who had got his wife killed. His head abruptly felt like it was going to explode and his guts churned vigorously, and he found himself dry-heaving over the side of his mattress instead.

"Jake?" he heard Justin say. "What are you doing here. What am I doing here, for that matter?"

"How should I know?" Jake spat out once he had his stomach back under control. "I don't even know where here is." He was irrationally pleased to see that although Justin was sitting up, he looked as grey and ill as Jake felt. Somehow or other this had to be all Justin's fault.

"I don't..." Justin frowned, winced, and tried again. "What the hell happened last night? I didn't drink that much."

Jake didn't have an answer for him. He didn't remember drinking heavily either, though he must have, and he had no idea what might have lead to them being here.

They sat there in silence, recovering. It took quite a while before Jake felt up to anything, even throwing insults at Justin. He stood up slowly, trying to keep the room from spinning around him, and was pleased to find his legs didn't wobble. Much. "Come on," he said as Justin heaved himself upright too. "Let's get out of here. I don't want to spend any more time in your company than I have to."

Jake idly considered pushing Justin down the stairs as he lead the way up. Much as he wanted to, it didn't seem like a great idea now his brain was working at least a bit. He had no idea if anyone else knew that the pair of them were there, and would get suspicious if he reappeared without Justin. It would be just the sort of thing Warren might do, given that he too seemed to have fallen out with Justin; get Jake to do his dirty work and then take the fall. Besides, Jake could practically see Jack's disappointed look. He'd heard the ex-policeman's lecture on how two wrongs didn't make a right often enough to know how that would go.

The flimsy door at the top of the stairs gave easily when Jake pushed on it. He stepped into the room beyond and stopped dead. It was oddly familiar. There were metal beer barrels wedged on their sides, just like in the cellar of the _Dog In The Pond_ — just exactly like it — but these were covered in dust and bits of plaster from the ceiling, which had fallen in entirely in places. It was weird, and Jake could feel the hairs on the back of his neck standing up.

"Where the hell are we?" Justin asked, quietly stepping up beside him.

"I don't know," Jake said. It was a measure of how strange this all felt that he didn't snap at Justin. "It's almost like..." No, that would be stupid. It couldn't possibly be the _Dog_ , not looking like this. Besides, the _Dog_ didn't have an under-cellar.

Jake couldn't help glancing behind him for reassurance. He didn't get it. "What the hell?" he demanded. The doorway that he had walked through just moments earlier wasn't there any more. In its place was more cracked concrete wall, dark with damp but showing no signs of ever having been any kind of opening.

They searched the wall for a good five minutes, but eventually Jake had to admit that there was nothing there. The doorway that they had stepped through just didn't exist any more. "But that's impossible," he said, more confused than ever. "Doors don't just vanish."

"Tell me about it," Justin said. "Nothing's made any sense since I woke up. Do you know this place?"

It looked very familiar, but Jake wasn't about to admit that. Particularly not to Justin. Instead he turned and walked to the short stairs that lead out of this room, hoping that the next door would show him something that wasn't so wrong.

It showed him something even more wrong.

They emerged into the main bar of the _Dog_. It couldn't be anywhere else, Jake knew it far too well, but at the same time it couldn't possibly be the pub he called home. Chairs and tables were smashed and overturned, and the whole place was covered in dust and cobwebs to a degree that would have had Frankie going spare. It looked like the place had been smashed up, then neglected for years.

"How...?" Justin asked. He was beginning to sound scared, and Jake took what little comfort he could from that. "I was here just last night. All this, it can't have just happened overnight, can it?"

"Is this some kind of joke?" Jake demanded. He was grasping at straws, flailing around for anything that made any kind of sense.

"If it is, it isn't funny," Justin said. He picked up a fallen beer glass, shuddered and put it back down again in a hurry. Something unpleasant seemed to be growing in it. "You can come out now," he called, but not terribly loudly. Jake's receding hangover still twinged.

Nothing happened.

"Let's get out of here," Jake said, forgetting himself enough to actually include Justin in that thought. The sight of the _Dog_ — if it really was the _Dog_ — in this state was really getting to him. Justin didn't argue, hurrying after as Jake picked his way to the door.

It didn't get any better outside. Everything looked dilapidated, just as it had inside, but worse was the deliberate damage Jake could see. While the jetty at the river's edge seemed to have just rotted overnight somehow, it looked like the signpost had been chopped down. There were signs of fire up against the building too, and across the river all that could be seen was brambles and some spindly trees. There had never been many houses over there, but there was no sign of them at all now.

Justin swore softly. "What the hell is going on? How can this have happened? And where is everybody?"

Jake shook his head. It was impossible, this had to be a nightmare. "We'd better stick together," he said unwillingly. He didn't want to have anything to do with Justin, but he wanted to be alone in this desolation even less. "We should look around, see if we can find anyone. Surely it can't all be like this?"

It wasn't, but that didn't help Jake's state of mind either. As they rounded the _Dog_ and looked towards the centre of the village, the first thing he saw was a massive stone building looming over everything. It felt oppressive just to look at, the grey stone blending with the grey sky until it seemed like the clouds themselves were part of stonework, weighing down everything beneath them.

"A castle?" Justin said incredulously. "Who would build a castle here?"

"Who would do any of this?" Jake shot back. "It looks like it's up by the old gateway, maybe someone decided to rebuild that." It didn't make a lot of sense to him, but then again pretty much nothing had made sense since he had woken up.

"I don't like it," Justin said, "We should get out of here, find somewhere else we can ask about what's happened."

"And where else would that be? Whoever is up in that castle must know something about all this." Jake didn't like the look of the castle either, but he set off towards it with all the confidence he could muster. Anywhere that Justin didn't want to be had to have some good points.

Their journey towards the castle was anything but reassuring. They should have been walking past brick houses, cutting through narrow alleyways, and at the very least seeing people out and about on the streets. The houses were fire-blackened and collapsed shells, half of the alleys blocked with rubble, and the people... those few people that they saw kept well away from them and disappeared as quickly as they could. They were mostly dressed in rags and poor home-made clothes, no sign of anything machine made. Jake couldn't even see anyone wearing honest-to-God shoes, never mind a pair of trainers. "It's like they've abandoned everything modern," he said. "They aren't even using the ruins for shelter. Why on earth...?"

"I think there's some wooden shacks over in the park," Justin offered.

A man appeared from behind the low remains of a wall, and Jake took a step towards him. The man promptly turned and ran. "Right," Jake said angrily, "the next person we see, we pin him down until things start making sense."

"If we can catch him," Justin said dubiously.

Jake gave him a baleful look. He would have added a piece of his mind, but at that moment half a dozen men who would not have been out of place in a Robin Hood film marched into view. They were dressed in chain armour and dark blue tabards, and looked exactly the way Jake had always imagined medieval guards would look. They also didn't look particularly friendly; the leader took one look at Jake and Justin and bellowed, "You there! Stand where you are!"

"Now's your chance," Justin murmured.

Jake didn't bother glaring at him this time, he was too concerned with the oncoming guards and their very solid-looking swords. Instinct was telling him that these were dangerous people, but he wasn't going to back down in front of Justin. Instead he held up his hands to show he was harmless, smiled and said, "Hi, I'm sorry but we seem to have got a bit lost. I don't suppose you could tell us where we are?"

"Outlander spies," spat the leader, coming to stop a couple of feet away from Jake. He didn't look pleasant, and he smelled worse. He also looked incredibly dangerous, so Jake wasn't about to mention it.

Instead, Jake clamped down on his temper and said as reasonably as he could, "No, really, we've just got turned around somehow. If you could just give us some directions—"

The guardsman laughed in his face. "You dress in the old ways and expect us to believe that? We've got ourselves a funny man here, boys." The others laughed with him. It didn't sound like remotely pleasant laughter to Jake; these people didn't like him, and they wouldn't need much of an excuse to get violent.

Justin, typically, seemed to be too thick to notice a threat when he heard one. "It's not that old," he said, plucking at his T-shirt. "I know I can't afford anything new, but..." He trailed off as it finally seemed to dawn on him how dangerous these people were. Far too late, unfortunately; the guards were now looking much more on edge, hands edging towards their weapons as if Jake and Justin were somehow a real threat to them.

"No, it's not, is it?" the leader said softly. "Her Majesty will want to see them."

"The Queen?" Jake asked, taken aback. What she might be doing in Hollyoaks village, especially a Hollyoaks village that looked like this, he had no idea.

The guard seemed to take his shock as fear. "She'll get the truth out of you," he said nastily. "Now move."

As he reached for Jake, there was a low whistling sound and a sort of wet thud. Jake watched him hesitate and wobble for a second before his brain took in that something was sticking through the man's neck.

"Now that's just showing off," said a new voice as the guard leader crumpled to the ground. Standing on the remains of the wall beside them was a young man with a bow slung on his back, a sword in his hand and a cheery grin on his face. This seemed to be enough to panic the remaining guards — at least they hesitated long enough to let him jump down between them and Jake.

There was another low whistle and a scream, as one of the other guards dropped his sword and clutched at the arm that was now sprouting an arrow. This time Jake saw the archer, a dark-haired man standing off to the left. Like the other interloper, he was dressed in dark greens and browns, his clothes roughly made but rugged.

"Hey, no poaching," the swordsman said as he casually downed another guardsman. "We agreed, remember?"

"You agreed," the archer said calmly. He drew and fired again, putting an arrow into a hastily-raised shield.

The other locked blades with two opponents, punched one of them in the face, then twisted aside to deliver a lethal blow to the other. "Spoilsport!" he called, laughing, then eyed the remaining guards thoughtfully. "You know, if you make a run for it now, you'll probably live."

The guards ran.

"What just happened?" Jake asked unsteadily. It was a stupid question he knew, but he wasn't sure that he really believed what he had just seen. Wasn't sure that he wanted to believe, given the bodies strewn in front of him.

The swordsman turned and gave him a dazzling smile. "You've just been the subjects of a brilliant and daring rescue," he said. He looked searchingly at Jake and Justin for a moment, and murmured, "Incredible."

"You killed them," Justin said, sounding every bit as shocked as Jake felt.

"Better than being killed," the archer said flatly, hurrying up to them with his own sword now out and ready. "We need to move."

"But you killed them," Justin repeated as they were hustled away.

"Two each," he was told.

"Hey, woundings don't count," the smiling swordsman protested. His dark-haired companion just nodded towards the far end of what Jake was still trying to think of as the street, where another uniformed body was lying.

"But..." Jake couldn't think of what to say, just that he should be protesting somehow. You weren't supposed to just kill people out in the street in broad daylight.

"I know you've got a lot of questions," their friendlier rescuer said, looking serious for a moment. "Believe me, so have I, but we haven't got the time right now. We need to get out of here before those guards come back with friends. I know we're amazing, but even we would have trouble against the entire garrison."

Jake wanted to argue, but he wasn't given the chance. He and Justin were hurried away, kept low and out of sight until they were out of the ruins and into woodlands. Their rescuers set a fast pace, seeming completely at home sneaking around with medieval weaponry. Jake was breathing hard by the time they called a halt, and Justin seemed ready to expire on the spot. The others hadn't even worked up a sweat.

Jake had not the faintest idea of where they were; he had a reasonable grasp of what the countryside around the village looked like, but these woods didn't match up with anywhere he knew. He wanted to ask about that, about who his rescuers were, about what the hell was going on, but he needed a moment to get his breath back.

The black-haired archer didn't. "Are you going to tell me why you aborted the mission now?" he asked his companion grimly. He was younger than Jake had first thought, now Jake had the chance to look at him properly, maybe a year or two younger than Jake himself. He was good-looking enough, but his eyes were hard and unforgiving. Given how unconcerned he had seemed about killing people, Jake found him more than a bit scary.

"Don't you recognise...? No, of course, you wouldn't." The other man frowned and pushed his unruly brown hair out of his eyes. He was a few years younger again, Jake realised, more like Justin's age. "Sorry, Finn, they disappeared a couple of years before you arrived."

Finn, if that was his name, raised a sceptical eyebrow. Jake was confused for a moment, then the meaning of the younger man's words dawned on him. "Wait, we what?" he managed to gasp.

"You disappeared, Jake. Both of you went out one night and didn't come back. Your mum convinced half the village that Justin had killed you and done a runner."

"Hey!" Justin said, obviously stung.

Jake sneered at him. "I can see how people might think that," he said.

The youngster shrugged, then grinned impishly. "The other half of the village assumed that you killed Justin."

"Hang on a minute," Justin said before Jake could defend his honour. "How can we have disappeared a couple of years ago? We haven't been anywhere."

"A couple of years before I came here, he said," Finn pointed out unsympathetically. "That was about ten years ago."

Jake wanted to protest, but the other man was nodding. "And they don't look a day older than I remember them," he said.

"Which means magic."

Finn was looking positively hostile by now, and Jake was alarmed to notice that his hand was on the hilt of his sword. "But magic's not real," he protested weakly.

"Jake, we fell asleep one night and woke up a decade later," Justin said shakily. "A door we walked through wasn't there when we turned round. If that wasn't magic, it might as well be."

"Oh, magic's real all right," the other man said, watching Finn carefully. "None of us like it much, either." There was something hard-edged to his voice, as if it was a message particularly for Finn.

If it was a message, it didn't change Finn's attitude. He didn't take his eyes off the pair of them as he spoke. "They disappear _before_ it all falls apart, they haven't aged, and the first time we see them they're heading for Morgana's Castle. What's to say they didn't cause it all?"

"Because it's those two," came the reply. "Even I knew they hated each other. Co-operating enough to make all of this happen? Not a chance."

Jake felt a bit offended about being dismissed so easily, even if it was true that he wouldn't willingly help Justin even if he was dying. On the other hand, he also didn't want to say anything to upset the nice psychopaths, especially the one who didn't seem to like him.

Justin, by contrast, apparently had the survival instincts of a lemming. "Look," he said, "I've had to put up with Jake all morning, I don't know any Morgana and I've got no bloody clue what's going on! Why should I trust you? I don't even know who you are."

"Yes, you do," said the brown-haired man, all brilliant smiles again. "I'm shocked and aghast that you don't recognise me."

"You've been reading again, haven't you?" Finn muttered accusingly. His companion ignored him.

"I'm Tom. Tom Cunningham."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They're a decade late and a dollar short, so to speak. Justin and Jake find out just how much things have changed in their absence.

According to Tom, everything had ticked along pretty much as usual after Jake and Justin disappeared. People moved in and out, got together and broke up, all the usual stuff. Apart from the McQueens nearly getting blown up for reasons Tom never had understood, nothing that out of the ordinary had happened. Nancy and Frankie had an acrimonious fight over the custody of Charlie, but nobody thought twice about that or about Nancy and Darren getting together. It had all been business as usual until the day Finn and his family had moved in.

"I've heard this before," Finn said abruptly, walking to the edge of the clearing they were sitting in. He looked pointedly at Tom. "Someone needs to do something about the trail your _friends_ have left. They've got the woodcraft of a charging rhino."

"Charming," Jake murmured as Finn stalked off. Justin couldn't help but agree; the dark-haired young man had been unfriendly since they had met.

"Finn lost his whole family that day," Tom said, gently reproving. "None of us like being reminded of it, but he has more reason than most."

Justin winced. He remembered how much it had hurt to lose his sisters, so he had some idea of how bad it must have been for Finn. "Sorry," he said, meaning it. "You were saying?"

Tom sighed. "It seemed like a perfectly ordinary summer day at first," he said, looking off into the distance. "Steph had let me sleep late and watch TV when I got up. The first we knew that anything was happening was when the telly died. And the fridge and the laptop, and anything modern really. One minute they were working fine, the next they wouldn't do a thing.

"At first we thought it was just a power cut, it didn't occur to us to wonder why all of the battery-powered things stopped working too. We went out to check with everyone else, in case it was just our flat, or maybe someone had got through to the electricity company. No one had, though, so I persuaded Steph to take me to the park to play.

"We had barely got past the shops when Nancy came into the square, Darren standing beside her looking incredibly smug. She just calmly announced that she was in charge now, and she 'required' everyone to swear loyalty to her."

"Nancy?" Jake asked incredulously.

Tom nodded. "A lot of people reacted like that. Calvin tried to talk her into making her announcement some other time when people weren't so worried about their phones not working. Warren laughed in her face."

Justin winced. Nancy wouldn't have taken kindly to that at the best of times. If she was off her rocker like Tom was suggesting, she might do anything.

"I was too far away to hear what she said," Tom continued, "but she pointed at Warren and he burst into flames. He shuddered. "It was just like in a movie, except for the screaming."

"Nancy killed Warren?" Jake looked shocked. Again. Not that Justin was in any better state; this did all sound too incredible to believe. If he hadn't woken up to find the world so changed overnight, if he hadn't walked through a door that vanished behind him, he would have dismissed all this as lunatic ravings. As it was, he wasn't entirely sure he hadn't gone mad himself.

Tom closed his eyes. "Rumour has it he's still alive, still burning, providing the light for her Great Hall. Every now and then she heals his throat so he can scream some more." He looked up directly at Jake, and the pain in his eyes made Justin flinch again.

"She isn't your Nancy any more, Jake. She calls herself Queen Morgana now, and the things she's done... Oh God, the things she's done!

"I didn't see what she did to Calvin that turned into him into a monster out of your worst nightmares. Steph and I just stood there horrified like everyone else was, until Tony and Dom quietly walked up and told us to get out of there. We barely made it out in time; I kept looking back, and I saw a whole squad of her guards appear out of thin air and start herding people. Maybe eighty people made it out, most of us young, and of us all only Dom knew which way round to hold a sword."

"So Dom's in charge?" Justin asked. He tried and failed to imagine gentle, affable Dom in charge of a rebellion.

"No, Dom..." Tom thought about his answer for a moment. "Remember I said we couldn't take on the entire garrison? Dom gave it a damn good go."

"What about Mum and Charlie?" Jake asked fearfully.

"Sorry, Jake," Tom said quietly. "Morgana really had it in for your mum. She had her dragged into the square, screamed abuse at her and burned her at the stake. I don't know what happened to Charlie, no one has seen him or Jack since this all started."

Justin reached a hand out to steady Jake, who looked about ready to collapse at this news. For the first time he felt a twinge of sympathy for what Jake was going through; losing a parent so suddenly wasn't fun, as he knew from personal experience. As he knew from when Jake had run down Mrs Valentine for that matter, and he had spent half his time trying to stop Sonny from doing anything stupid.

"But why didn't they send the army in?" he asked. "Surely someone in London must have noticed what was going on."

"Guns don't work," Tom said simply. "Nothing that doesn't fit Morgana's idea of a medieval kingdom works. There's a barrier miles out past Chester that has been expanding town by town over the years, and inside it nothing modern works. God knows how big it is now, we stopped bothering to check years ago. People can get in but not out, and it looks like Morgana must know when they do. Anything military coming in gets turned into more of Morgana's guards, fully brainwashed and ready to kill anyone resisting her rule. We nearly lost the Baron finding that out," he finished grimly.

"The Baron?" Justin asked.

Finn appeared at the edge of the clearing. "We need to move," he said abruptly.

Tom rose to his feet, grinning as if the emotionally-laden conversation had been nothing. "You waited for a dramatically appropriate moment," he said mock-accusingly.

Finn rolled his eyes and ignored him. "Here," he said, thrusting a couple of sword belts at Jake and Justin. "Point the sharp end towards your enemies and try to look dangerous."

"You did! You made a joke! Well, sort of, but still. Finn, I'm so proud of you."

"Fine, whatever makes you happy. Now can we move before the next patrol find the remains of the last patrol?"

They were hurried on through the rest of the morning without being given chance to take a breather, never mind ask any more questions. There was a very brief pause for lunch, which consisted mostly of Finn and Tom splitting up their meagre rations while Justin sucked oxygen into his lungs and tried to persuade his legs that they weren't in fact being tortured. There wasn't much to eat, but all the same Justin had to bolt down most of his portion after they had started moving again.

Tom and Finn seemed perfectly at ease with the pace, not that you could tell it from Finn's face. Not that you could tell much from Finn's face at all; he never so much as cracked a smile the whole time. Tom never seemed to stop smiling, on the other hand, though he was silent as a ghost while they were travelling. They seemed such opposites despite going through the same terrible times, but that part of Justin that wasn't entirely occupied with putting one foot in front of another wondered if they weren't both as badly hurt by it. Finn might be bitter and hardened by it all, but Justin couldn't help but worry about the speed with which Tom seemed to switch on a smile and pretend that all was right with his world. Had either of them ever had time to grieve in all this insanity, he wondered?

He was feeling pretty shaken up by it all himself, but Justin felt that in some ways he was distanced from the shock. Maybe it was because he had already lost everyone he cared about long ago, but the whole thing still seemed more like a horror story than something real. For Jake, on the other hand, it looked like it was very real indeed. As he gradually got used to the travelling, Justin became uncomfortably aware that Jake was doing the opposite; now he was the one stumbling along, barely paying any attention to his surroundings.

He looked, Justin thought guiltily, like someone who had just lost everything. His mother was dead, his step-father and son were missing, and his step-brother and sister-in-law were the ones responsible. He hadn't had time to mourn his wife — neither had Justin for that matter — and then to have all this piled on top? It would be enough to break anyone, and despite the epic hatred they had for each other that worried Justin. He might not like Jake, but he didn't want to see him dead. Especially not now that so many others were gone.

They came across the small stream so suddenly that Justin almost fell in. Jake would have, if Tom hadn't casually grabbed his arm. It looked clear and inviting, and Justin was tired and thirsty, so he knelt down and cupped some of the cool water in his hands. "Is it safe to drink?" he heard Jake ask dully, but he was already drinking by that point. Belatedly, he hoped he hadn't just done something stupid.

Tom shrugged. "It's never done me any harm," he said with grin, "though Finn might disagree." Finn just gave a long-suffering snort.

It was much better than harmless, Justin thought as he scooped up more water and drank again. It tasted sweet, pure, all those words Justin had heard people use but had never really believed about plain old water. Then again, he'd never had water that hadn't come out of a tap or a bottle; maybe this was what it was supposed to taste like when it wasn't processed and purified within an inch of its life. He splashed some on his face as well, trying to wash at least a bit of the sweat and dust of the journey off.

When he looked up again, he gasped. He couldn't help it. The air itself seemed to be glowing gently, bathing everything in a soft, slightly unreal light. He felt lighter inside too, as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders, freer and more ready to laugh than since he had learned about his father's suicide. "Wow," he said.

"What?" Finn asked. His sword was out and ready faster than Justin could blink as he scanned for anything Justin might have seen.

Justin tried not to stare at Finn, or anyone else for that matter. They looked clearer to him somehow, not that he could put it in words, but there was an aliveness to them that wasn't the same as the surroundings. He couldn't say any of that, though; if he said anything about seeing things, Finn was likely to decide that he was too much of a liability, and somehow Justin didn't think he'd survive that.

"Nothing," he said weakly. At Finn's glare he continued, "I guess it just struck me that we really are in the future and this isn't just some weird dream." Finn didn't look impressed, but he sheathed his sword, so Justin figured that he wasn't in immediate danger of being skewered and went back to his covert study of the others.

Tom was jollying Jake into having a drink himself, and Jake looked like he needed it. Well, Jake looked like he needed a stiff whisky or two, but the stream was all that was available. The water might well do him good, Justin decided, so he sidled along to help. Or at least try. "It tastes amazing," he offered encouragingly.

Jake gave him a weary, mistrustful look, but stooped to scoop up some water anyway. Justin waited for him to perk up, or at least not looked so utterly knackered, but to his surprise nothing happened. Jake didn't look any different, or look like he was seeing things any differently either.

"You must be loving this," Jake said eventually, his voice dull and emotionless.

"Sure," Justin said sarcastically. "Half of the people I know are dead, and the rest are in hiding. I couldn't be happier."

Jake scowled at him, which at least was a reaction. Tom's grin brightened, on the other hand, which couldn't possibly be a good sign. "You have a whole new bunch of people your age to fall out with," he pointed out.

Justin gave him a narrow look. "I wonder if Finn would be interested in all the stuff you got into when you were eight?" he mused.

"I rest my case."

Finn decided to interrupt the banter. "We need to get moving if we're going to get back before dark," he said. "I don't want to be caught out in the open with these two."

"Worried that we'll attract guards?" Justin asked, irritated by Finn's dismissive tone.

"There are worse things than guards about at night," Finn said ominously. "Now move."

They moved, albeit reluctantly on Justin's part. He wasn't at all convinced that Jake was up to this forced march, but Finn didn't seem to be interested in cutting them any slack, and for all his cheeriness Tom was just as insistent that they made good time. The best Justin could do was offer Jake his hand as he stepped across the stream.

Jake looked at him coldly. "I don't need your help," he said, before stumbling on the stones and nearly falling in. Justin bit back a sarcastic retort. Jake definitely needed his help, and he was obviously going to be an arse about it. Again.

It wasn't until a lot later that he remembered that this was the first time he'd voluntarily been helpful to Jake.

The sun had set by the time they reached the village. The first that Justin knew about it was when a shape separated itself from a tree and demanded to know what the hell was going on. In the unreality of the gathering gloom it took Justin a while to recognise Ravi Roy.

"What the hell are you doing back so soon?" Ravi demanded, "And why have you brought strangers back here?" His sword was out and pointed at the group of them in a distinctly unfriendly manner, Justin observed, which was about par for the course today. He was surprised to notice that Ravi was holding it left-handed; he hadn't known the man well back, er, yesterday, but he didn't remember him being a leftie.

"And a good evening to you too," Tom said cheerily. "We found something a lot more interesting than troop movements. The Baron's going to want to see these two."

"You know he hates being called—" Ravi broke off as Tom pushed Jake and Justin forward. "What the hell?"

"That's pretty much what I said," Tom admitted.

Ravi stared at them hard for a long moment, then awkwardly sheathed his sword and came closer. "It can't be," he murmured, studying first Jake then Justin closely.

"That's pretty much what he said," Tom agreed, nodding at Finn. Finn scowled at him.

Justin meanwhile was trying to make sense of what he could see of Ravi. He was older, obviously, but his right arm hung loosely at his side and his right foot dragged as he walked forward. The little Justin had known before was that Ravi was a very fit man, working out enough to make Justin feel inadequate, yet here he was looking half dead. Justin didn't know what to make of it.

"Right," Ravi said, coming to a decision. "Take them to the lower caves. I'll get the boss, though if I know him he's not going to be happy with you."

"When is he ever?" Tom said breezily as Ravi turned and disappeared into the trees.

"Shouldn't someone be taking over from him?" Jake asked as they started moving up the gradually steepening slope. "I mean, if he was supposed to be guarding this place, shouldn't there be a replacement?"

Finn snorted. "The half a dozen bowmen making as much noise as a drunken fox should be thanking you for your tact," he said loudly. There was an embarrassed rustling from several different directions. "If you had tried anything back there, you would be very dead now even if Ravi had somehow failed to skewer you."

"What happened to him anyway?" Justin asked.

"Aneurysm," Tom said dismissively. "Ancient history. He's still a better swordsman with one working arm than most people are with two."

"Also lucky," Finn muttered.

"Finn's still sore over their last practice bout. And the one before that, and the one before that..."

"Sometimes I wonder why I put up with you," Finn said pointedly.

"That would be my wit, charm and boyish good looks," Tom fired back. "Also, I'm the only one who can keep up with you."

Finn snorted. Justin was morally certain that he rolled his eyes as well, but it was too dark to see.

Moments later they doubled-back around a large bush tight against the hillside to find themselves in front of a narrow hole in the rock face. It looked downright uninviting to Justin. Finn knelt down and did something, and before long had a lighted torch feebly illuminating the cave. "This way," he said, and set off inwards.

Justin was hopelessly confused within minutes. The cave branched and twisted madly, rarely wider than his outstretched arms, and he couldn't keep track of how many turns they had taken, never mind which directions. There was no way he would be able to find his way out again without help. He shivered at the mere thought of being trapped here, uncomfortably aware of the tons of rock over his head. He had never thought he might be claustrophobic before, but right then he would have given anything to be out in the night air again.

"You could lose an army down here," Jake muttered unknowingly echoing Justin's thoughts.

"That's the point," Tom said eyes dancing. "Strangely, no one ever wants to let me prove it."

"I can't imagine why," Finn said as the cave finally widened out. Finn led them on through several larger caves before they arrived in a smaller one that could almost be called homey if the whole complex didn't have Justin so on edge. It was lit for one thing, four torches in sconces burning merrily away. There was also straw on the floor, or something like it, and a few roughly made chairs around a table on which plates of food and a jug and cups had been set out.

"Here we are," Tom said, "all mod cons. Tony makes a mean venison stew."

Justin lowered himself into a chair, eager to get the weight off his aching feet. The food smelled incredibly appetising, and Justin found himself wolfing it down in short order. Beside him, Jake was doing much the same, while Tom and Finn ate at a more reasonable speed, as if they had done nothing more vigorous than going for a short stroll.

"So when do we get to meet this baron of yours," Justin asked when felt recovered enough.

Tom cocked an ear. "I'd say in about ten seconds," he said with his usual cheer. He and Finn stood rather hurriedly, despite his grin.

About ten seconds later, accompanied by a shout of "What the fuck did you think you were doing?" a toweringly angry Ste Hay stormed in.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ste's in charge, and he's not happy with our heroes.

Jake didn't know what to make of this Ste. He hadn't known him beforehand, at least not beyond Becca's despairing of anyone ever teaching the boy anything. Oh, he had heard Mike Barnes complain often enough that Ste was a talentless waster who was in no way good enough for Amy, and he knew that he had been sent to a detention centre for joyriding and nearly killing someone, but that seemed a far cry from the man standing in front of him.

This Ste was a man, for one thing. Older than Jake, he had an intensity and focus to him at odds with a slacker with an overblown sense of entitlement. In some ways he reminded Jake of Warren; this Ste wasn't going to stand for anything that got between him and whatever he reckoned was important.

For another thing, Tom and Finn respected him. Finn might look as deadpan as ever, and Tom might have a smile playing around his lips still, but the way they stood straighter when Ste came in, the way they didn't even try to interrupt as he talked to them, that spoke volumes about what they thought of him. Whatever else Jake might think, this Ste was clearly someone to be wary of.

Right now, Jake was being particularly wary. Ste seemed to have decided that he and Justin were some sort of threat to Ste's people, and Jake got the distinct impression that he wouldn't like the consequences. Weary as he was, Jake wasn't going to give up just because someone correctly thought Justin was untrustworthy.

"You know Morgana is sniffing round again, trying to find our ways in and out," Ste told his henchmen angrily. "What the hell made you think it was safe to bring them here? You could have led her right to the caves."

"It's Jake and Justin," Tom said mildly. "Can you think of anyone less likely to work together?"

"I can't think of anyone you're less likely to suspect," Ste shot back.

"They crossed the stream easily enough. Even drank from it."

That had been a test of some sort, Jake thought incredulously. The water hadn't seemed like anything special, at least beyond being cold and clear. Frankly he had appreciated the two minute pause more.

"You still shouldn't have brought them here," Ste said, though he seemed at least a little mollified. "You should have taken them well away from here and fetched me."

"She'd love that, getting you out in the open."

"Better me than the whole village."

"He's right." That was his voice, Jake realised. His conscious mind had been struggling with the idea of Ste putting everyone else ahead of himself, but apparently his subconscious had decided it was his turn to speak. All eyes were on him now, and Ste's still didn't look any too friendly.

"I know it's me and him and we really aren't a threat — at least I'm not — but you can't know that for sure. And if you can't be sure, some risks are just too big."

Tom did look a little chastened at that, but Ste just regarded him levelly. "That brings me to the problem of what to do with you now," he said eventually.

Jake nodded understandingly. "You don't trust us and you can't let us go," he said,

"If she managed to keep track of you despite the stream, I can't even let you out of the caves."

"Oh great," Justin said, and Jake took a little comfort from how shaky he sounded. "Why?"

"The caves block magic," Tom volunteered.

Ste scowled at him. "So you're staying here," he said to Jake. "Any objections?"

"Ste?"

The quavery interruption came before Justin could do something stupid like object. Jake turned to see a man leaning unsteadily at the entrance to the cave. He looked thin and feverish, and it took Jake a moment to recognise Josh Ashworth. There was something off about him, about the way he appeared to stare through everything except for Ste, completely ignoring Jake and Justin unlike everyone else.

"Josh, what are you doing?" The change in Ste startled Jake; his voice was gentle and full of concern, with none of the brusqueness he had been showing to the rest of them. His whole attitude had changed in just a moment. Tom and Finn didn't seem to find anything unusual in this, making Jake reassess his opinion of Ste yet again.

"Needed you," Josh said. "To tell. Can I? Please?" He seemed to be having trouble putting together complete sentences, almost like a child.

"Always," Ste said. He opened his arms as Josh rushed over to him, burying his head in Ste's chest as Ste hugged him tightly. "You daft bugger," Ste told him with surprising gentleness, "why couldn't you stay at home? You know you don't like this place." He shot a glare at Jake and Justin, as if daring them to make something of what was happening.

"Heavy," Josh agreed indistinctly. "Can't hear." He looked up straight into Ste's face. "Important. Silence falls."

"'With the tears of the fool,' I know. You told me."

"I... did?" Josh looked around, and for a disconcerting moment Jake felt like he was being looked into, as if Josh had just glanced inside him or something. "They're coming," Josh announced. "From then and now, not right, not right now. Was and will be. Time lost, time tossed, time last."

"Yeah, you said," Ste told him soothingly.

Jake couldn't help but shiver. Something in the way Josh was talking was deeply unnerving. He and Justin had managed to sleep a decade away somehow, and all that talk of 'not right'... "What does he mean?"

Josh looked towards him. "Who...?"

He was blind, Jake realised. Josh was looking in Jake's general direction, but he wasn't looking at him, and he didn't seem to have registered Justin either. "It's me, Jake," Jake said. "Justin's here too. What did you mean?"

Josh ignored him, which was beginning to get annoying. "Justin?" he asked, leaning back into Ste's chest.

"Uh, yeah," Justin said tentatively. "Josh, do you know what happened to us? How—?"

"Not yet," Josh interrupted, apparently ignoring Justin too. That at least gave Jake some comfort, even if Josh was freaking him out. "Soon," Josh added.

"Soon what, Josh?" Ste asked gently, smoothing down Josh's hair.

Josh looked up at him, or at least the sound of his voice. "Rest soon," he said. "When they are them."

"When who is what?" Ste asked, keeping his voice calm and even despite seeming every bit as confused as Jake felt.

"Hard," Josh complained. "So much to see..." Then he convulsed, arching backwards and nearly jerking out of Ste's grasp. When he spoke again, his voice was different, and he was staring straight at Jake and Justin.

_"Take the white horses to the Wizard's Well, for he has need of them."_

The words rang through Jake in a way that he couldn't explain. He didn't just hear them, he felt them and knew them as if he had heard them over and over, as if they were part of his life. "What the fuck?" he heard Justin ask in a small, scared voice, and had to agree.

"Well that's settled that, then," Ste said grimly as Josh went limp in his arms. "What white horses have we got?"

"Four," Tom said promptly. "Unless someone's taken out a mounted patrol since we left."

"Four horses, four people. Why am I not surprised?"

"Fairly smart," Josh managed to say, with obvious difficulty.

Ste smoothed Josh's hair down. "Hey, you," he said with a sad smile. "How are you feeling?"

"Like shit," Josh admitted. "I hate you seeing this." He sounded different again, more together as far as Jake could tell, and he seemed to be looking straight into Ste's eyes. But he had been blind moments ago, Jake would have sworn to that.

"I hate you having to go through all this. If I'd known what it would do to you..."

"It wasn't your choice," Josh said. "Just wish I'd known the real you first. Before the future got stuffed in my head." The ache in his voice made Jake embarrassed to be hearing such a personal conversation.

"You'd have done the same thing anyway, because we couldn't have survived without it and you're brilliant like that."

"You're not so shabby either. And I'm not so brave."

"Yes you are," Ste said firmly, "and no arguing. We haven't got time for arguing."

"No," Josh agreed. "I don't think we've got long left. Whatever I said this time, it's important. Really important."

Ste swore. "We'll just have to pray for a miracle then, 'cos we haven't got the men or the magic to take on Her Nibs."

"You'll find a way," Josh told him, "you're brilliant like that." Then he shuddered in Ste's arms. "I can't hold on any longer. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

"Don't be," Ste told him fiercely. "Don't you ever be sorry."

"Love you too," Josh said, and pulled him down into a kiss.

Jake didn't know what to think. The idea of two men together disgusted him. He had tried to be happy for Craig when he and John Paul had been an item, but he couldn't even see them together without feeling ill, without thinking that there was something wrong with his brother.

This was different, though. He hadn't understood what was happening to start with, just that Ste seemed to be taking care of Josh. That Ste was in charge, and the two slightly terrifying young men who had herded Jake along all day deferred to him without question. Then Josh had collapsed, and the way he and Ste looked at each other... That was how you looked at someone you loved. Jake had seen that look on Becca's face so many times, had looked at her that way himself, that he couldn't possibly mistake it. That had shaken him enough, but before the revulsion hit he saw the pain in Ste's eyes and heard it in Josh's voice, and they hurt so much... He couldn't hate that.

Then Ste pulled back, and Josh buried his head in Ste's chest and whimpered, and the look on Ste's face nearly broke Jake's heart all over again.

"Hurts," Josh mumbled, sounding very small and young again.

"I know, I know," Ste murmured. He stood up, guiding Josh with him. "Let's get you back home."

He paused at the entrance of the cave and looked back, all the hard-lined leader once more. "You leave at first light," he said, and then they were gone.

"What the hell was that about?" Jake asked quietly after a short silence. Seeing Ste and Josh like that had really shaken him.

"We're taking four horses out to the Edge," Tom said, settling himself back down.

Finn raised an eyebrow. "Alderley Edge?"

Tom slapped himself lightly on the forehead. "I keep forgetting you don't know the local legends. There's a story that King Arthur and a hundred knights lie sleeping under Alderley Edge, waiting for England's hour of greatest need."

"They're about ten years too late, then," Finn muttered.

Justin frowned. "I remember reading about that at school," he said. "Something about selling a white horse to an old man?"

"The Wizard of the Well," Tom confirmed. "He's supposed to guard the knights while they're sleeping."

"So of course he can't get his mythical arse over here," Finn added bitterly, "and we end up dragging four horses and two liabilities over Alderley bloody Edge."

"Liabilities?" Justin demanded. Jake shushed him.

"What's so bad about Alderley Edge?" he asked. He had driven up there once or twice with Becca, and he remembered it as gorgeous open countryside.

Tom hesitated. "It's not entirely... real any more. There are things living up on the Edge that couldn't have existed before, and most of them aren't friendly."

"And why do we have to go there again?" Justin asked. "Because Josh had an eppy and said something weird?"

Finn was in his face instantly. "Do not ever talk about him like that," he hissed.

Justin backed away from him hastily. "I didn't mean it that way," he said. There was an edge of panic to his voice that had Jake frowning.

"Josh is the only reason most of us are alive," Tom said more gently, looking as somber as Jake had ever seen him. "Rumour has it he and the Baron were arguing in the street when the first oracle hit. Ste believed it, rang round as many people as he could before the phones gave out and told them to get out of there. That's why Tony and Dom knew to tell us to move.

"Since then, he's been the way you've seen him. Every now and then he gives us a message like that, and we follow the advice and save lives, and for a few minutes he's lucid. The rest of the time, the Baron has to look after him like he was his own kid."

"It must be killing Ste," Jake said. He was still confused about what he ought to be feeling about all this, but he was amazed that anyone could be that strong. And for it to be Ste, who had always wanted things handed to him on a plate, that was just unbelievable.

Justin gave him a strange look, but didn't say anything snide about Jake's confusion for once. Instead he asked, "What does Amy think of that?"

"They couldn't get to her," Tom said. "I don't know why, but she was in the square with the kids when it all kicked off. When Morgana found out Ste was organising us... it wasn't pretty."

"Shit," Justin said quietly. As well he might, since he only seemed to be opening his mouth to put his foot in it.

"Thank God you and Steph got away," Jake said feelingly. "Do you think I could talk to her?"

Tom looked down. "No," he said shortly.

"Why not? For God's sake, Tom, she's my sister."

"You can't," Tom said flatly. "Leave it at that, Jake." He still wouldn't look up, and Jake started to get a very bad feeling about this.

"What happened, Tom?" Justin asked gently, before Jake could work himself up enough to start shouting.

Tom didn't look up, but Finn answered for him. "Cancer. At least that's what we think. There was nothing anyone could do without modern medicine. She was a brave woman." He spoke quietly and calmly, but still managed to glare at Jake.

Jake staggered. He hadn't realised how much he had pinned on Steph, on her still being alive in all of this mess. With her gone, he had no one; all of his family that had still been in Hollyoaks were gone. There was still Craig, who he hoped was somewhere outside this mess, but every single other member of his extended family that he had talked to just yesterday was dead, missing or insane.

Justin stepped towards Tom and put a hand on his shoulder. "That must have been hard for you, mate. I'm sorry."

"You've got nothing to be sorry for," Tom said. He looked up and smiled, albeit a rather more forced smile than he had graced them with all day. "It was a long time ago, and I've got over it."

Justin didn't looked terribly convinced, but he didn't press the point. Instead he looked over at Jake. Jake turned away quickly; the last thing he wanted was sympathy from Justin Burton.

"Anyway," Tom continued, "it's time Finn and I left if we're going to be off first thing."

"You're not sleeping here?" Justin asked. He sounded anxious again, as if he was scared of being left alone with Jake. Then again, Jake had to admit that if they hadn't been in this bizarre world with its magic and prophesies, he would have had good reason.

"We have homes and wives to go to," Finn said. "Don't worry, someone will come and fetch you in the morning." He sounded anything but reassuring.

"But..." Justin trailed off, apparently unable to think of any more objections. That or struggling with the idea of Tom Cunningham having a wife.

"Where do we sleep?" Jake asked as Tom and Finn took two of the torches out of their holders. He wasn't sure it would matter; the chances of him sleeping after all the shocks of the day were pretty small.

Finn gestured at a pile of bracken that Jake had thought was just rubbish. Tom grinned and spoke before Jake could protest. "Sorry we didn't have time to knock together a bed frame, but on the plus side it's softer than the floor. There are a couple of blankets over there too, so you shouldn't get cold. See you in the morning," he finished cheerfully, and was gone while Jake was still taking this in.

Jake sagged. Without Tom's incessant cheeriness and with the remaining torches burning low, all the energy seemed to drain out of him. He felt numb, battered by the strangeness of the day and the loss of everyone he loved. When Justin suggested that they lay down while they could still see the bedding, Jake couldn't even summon up the energy to resist.

How could this happen, Jake asked himself as he wrapped the thin blanket around himself. How could his family have been wiped out, and leave him alone like this? How could he have survived for that matter, somehow losing a decade overnight? Did he want to survive now, with no one to live for? Losing Becca had been devastating enough, and he'd had his family to help him through that. Now they were gone, and there was no one here to help him any more.

The pile of bracken wasn't very large, and even in his self-absorption Jake couldn't completely block out Justin's presence next to him. Much as he would have liked to blame Justin for everything that had happened, Jake knew that couldn't be true. Justin was just a kid, and for all that Jake hated his guts there was no way he could be behind something like this, whatever this was. The only reason Justin could lie there and breathe easily was that he didn't have any family left to lose.

Except Justin wasn't breathing easily. Jake frowned as he listened to Justin jerkily suck in air, almost as if he was having a nightmare. He shouldn't care, Jake thought, but if Justin kept this up he would never get any sleep. "What's the matter?" he asked gruffly.

"N-nothing."

Jake didn't need to hear the catch in Justin's voice to tell he was lying. Heck it was Justin, lying was what he did. Jake shouldn't give a damn about it, not after Justin had killed Becca as surely as if he had held the knife himself, but weirdly Jake found himself caring anyway. Justin was his last connection to Becca, the last person who had known her. He needed Justin, if only to hate.

He reached out to clasp Justin on the shoulder, and said more gently, "Let's try that again; what's the matter?"

Justin rolled onto his back, and in the dwindling torchlight Jake could see the fear on his face. "I'm not claustrophobic," he insisted, and Jake understood.

"A lot has happened since we woke up," he told Justin. "You don't have to pretend with me, I know."

"No, it's not... can't you feel it? All that weight over us."

Whether he meant the tons of rock above them or this stupid business with horses and oracles that they were stuck in, Jake didn't know. For the moment, he didn't care either; he knew exactly how it felt to be overwhelmed by events, and at last this was something he could cope with.

"It's OK," he said, pulling Justin closer. "You don't have to be strong all of the time. No one has to do that."

Justin resisted weakly. "Why?" he asked, the edge of panic still in his voice.

You're all I've got left, Jake nearly said. "There's not much I can do around here," he managed instead. "This at least I can do, even if it is you." It wasn't the most reassuring of speeches, but it seemed to work for Justin. He let himself be pulled close enough for Jake to hug him, and slowly his breathing evened out.

The weird thing, Jake thought as the last torch guttered and gave up the fight against the darkness, was that it wasn't weird. It felt good to be doing something, and it didn't seem to matter much that he didn't like Justin at all. He was helping, and that was good. Becca would approve, he thought as he drifted off to sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our heroes go right over the Edge.

"Wakey wakey, sleeping beauties!"

Justin woke slowly, unable to shake the feeling that something was wrong. He'd had this weird dream about finding Hollyoaks devastated and going around with Jake, which was pretty unsettling all on its own. He also didn't know where he was; he had apparently fallen asleep fully clothed on an unbelievably scratchy mattress, with someone else so close behind him as to be literally breathing down his neck. Now, to judge from the dim light, another someone wanted him to get up before it was even dawn. What had he done to deserve this?

A boot prodded his stomach. "Come on, up and at 'em. Daylight's a-wasting. Well, it will be in a bit anyway."

Justin opened his eyes to see the older Tom Cunningham of his nightmare grinning down at him. He quickly closed his eyes again, praying that this was still a dream, that he'd wake up on Calvin's couch as usual. Nothing happened, except that Jake groaned and shifted behind him. He opened his eyes to see Tom still there.

"Fuck," he mumbled.

Tom's grin widened. "Sorry, we're in a rush," he said cheerily. "Maybe you two love-birds can get some alone time later."

Justin found himself pushed roughly off the bracken heap shortly before he could scramble off under his own steam. He heard Jake start to whine about how it wasn't what it looked like, but as he lurched to his feet and saw that cave around him again, Justin stopped paying attention. All he could think about, all he could feel, was the thousands of tons of rock pressing down on him, hemming him in. Just like last night it felt as if it was personal, as if the caves wanted him dead and anybody else would just be a bonus. "Can we just get out of here?" he asked weakly.

Not nearly soon enough later, Justin emerged into the silvery pre-dawn gloom. He managed not to sob with relief as the weight lifted off his shoulders, though he was strongly tempted to kiss the ground now that he was out in the open air. Jake gave him a long look, probably worried about Justin trying to wreck his oh-so-heterosexual reputation, not that Justin gave a damn.

The horses were an unpleasant surprise. Not their existence, Justin remembered that much about last night's surreal conversation, but that they were ready saddled, and Tom and Finn were already mounted. "Couldn't we walk them?" he asked, sounding a bit pathetic in his own ears.

"Not quickly enough," Finn said unsympathetically.

"Never ridden before?" Tom asked. Justin, who had never so much as seen a horse in the flesh before, nodded. "Don't worry, you can learn as we go. It'll be fun."

"Fun?" Justin and Jake demanded simultaneously.

"For us," Tom clarified. Justin swore that Finn actually cracked a smile at that, not that he relented in the slightest. Eventually, after much cussing and falling over, Justin managed to get into the saddle. Then the real torture began.

Justin rode like a sack of spuds, according to Tom. Justin didn't think he was that bad until Finn started them trotting. Justin lost control almost immediately, bounced this way and that by the motion of the horse until finally, with graceless inevitability, he fell off. It didn't help his mood that Jake picked up the trick of it quickly, or at least quickly enough not to look like a total prat.

"I don't suppose you could make this any easier?" Justin said to his horse as he remounted. The horse looked round and him and snorted. "No, I didn't think so."

Hours later, Justin could almost have kissed Finn when he called a halt. His backside was one enormous bruise, and despite all of Tom's coaching and encouragement to "go with the motion" he just could not get the hang of riding. He slid thankfully to the ground, only to collapse as his legs informed him they had no intention of keeping him upright.

"Up you get," Finn said unsympathetically. "You need to stretch those legs or you'll get cramp like you wouldn't believe."

"Too late for that," Justin grumbled. Eventually he managed to get back on his feet and was rewarded with a hunk of bread and a lump of cheese for his lunch.

"Right," said Finn the second that Justin swallowed the last of his bread. "You two might as well learn how to hold a sword while your legs recover."

"Don't you mean 'use a sword?'" Jake asked.

"I don't expect miracles."

Swords were heavy, Justin quickly discovered. He reckoned that if he tried spinning the blade around like he had seen people do in the movies, he would have a broken wrist in short order. Finn didn't let them do anything so fancy anyway. Instead he made Justin and Jake drill for the better part of an hour, or at least that was what it felt like. They never actually got to swing their blades at anything other than thin air, and half the time Finn made them stop their swings anyway rather than carry them through.

"Nine o'clock, step, one o'clock, across," Tom chanted as Finn stalked between Justin and Jake. Justin forced his tired arms to follow the pattern, but as ever it wasn't good enough for Finn. All he got was a dissatisfied grunt and his elbows pushed upwards. If that wasn't depressing enough, Jake seemed to be getting the hang of swords as quickly as he took to riding. He actually got whole sentences out of Finn, like "Be more fluid, don't stop your sword unless I tell you to." That made about as much sense as "Wax on, wax off," to Justin, but Jake must have understood because Finn never seemed to repeat himself.

"Not too bad," Tom said encouragingly when they were finally allowed to rest. "Not great," he added at Finn's incredulous glare, "but I've definitely seen worse. Still, don't get into a fight with anyone who knows what they're doing."

"How do we know if someone knows what they're doing?" Justin asked from where he'd slumped down on the ground.

" _You_ don't get into a fight at all," Finn told him bluntly. "Mount up, now. We've wasted enough time here."

An hour or so later, as near as Justin could reckon it, they reached the edge of the forest. If Justin had been looking forward to open skies, he would have been sorely disappointed; as the trees thinned, a mist rose about them until they could barely see any further than they had in the thickest part of the wood. And it glowed with the same pearly light that the air in the forest did, which was somehow all the more disconcerting when it was mist doing it.

"Is it safe?" Justin asked apprehensively. It didn't look remotely safe to him.

"No," Tom confirmed cheerily. "Here be monsters. Unfortunately here also be the Wizard's Well, if the legends are right, a day or so thataway."

"But it's..." Glowing, Justin had going to finish before he remembered that Finn hadn't seemed to notice the glow yesterday, and no one had so much as commented on it in their ride today. It might be normal for Tom and Finn, but surely Jake would have said something if he had seen the glow in the air. He must be hallucinating, Justin thought, or worse; either way, mentioning it wasn't going to make him popular with the others. "How will we know which way to go?" he asked instead.

"You'll know because you'll be following us," Tom said, "and we'll know because we're amazing." Finn snorted at that, but set his horse walking purposefully into the mist all the same. Justin and the others hurried to follow suit.

It was eerie, much worse than riding through the woods in Justin's opinion. He had no trouble keeping the others in sight, but the mist muffled the noises of the horses' harnesses and made him feel alone all the same. Justin spurred his horse level with Jake's just to be with someone, then felt stupid for doing it. "How are you doing?" he asked in a low whisper, trying to pretend to himself that was why he had hurried forward.

Jake looked at him oddly. "Shouldn't I be asking you that?" he said.

"I'm fine," Justin said quickly, then sighed as Jake gave him a frankly sceptical look. "I'm as fine as you'd expect, given us being stuck here and me falling off my horse all the time. You've had a lot more to deal with than me, how are you?"

"I'll live." Jake's mouth set into a grim line, not reassuring Justin one little bit. "I'm fine while I've got something to do like this. I just... I don't want to think about it, OK?"

Justin gave him a long, measuring look. True, Jake didn't look like he was about to burst into tears or anything embarrassing like that, but he didn't look great either. His jaw was clenched in what seemed to be the universal Dean sign of stress given how often Justin had seen it on Craig's face, and he wouldn't look Justin in the eye. Justin was used to Jake glaring at him for being the source of all Jake's problems, and he reckoned that all this glaring out at the world in general couldn't be healthy.

On the other hand, Justin probably hadn't done him any favours by bringing all of Jake's current problems up again. He really ought to change the subject, start talking about anything else to help Jake take his mind off things, but he couldn't think of a single thing to say. It was kind of embarrassing not to be able to even start a conversation with Jake when he wanted to. Not that he really wanted to, Justin told himself irritably; Jake was at least partly to blame for what happened to Becca, it wasn't all Justin's fault, and Justin shouldn't be putting himself out for Jake no matter what.

By the time darkness fell and they were allowed to dismount, Justin had very nearly convinced himself that the awkward silence was Jake's fault as well. Not that he cared once his legs started cramping again, but it was the principle of the thing. Jake was a moody bugger at the best of times and didn't give a toss about anyone else, so it had to be his fault.

"Right, lie back and let me look at this," Jake said unexpectedly as Justin painfully lowered himself to the ground. He raised Justin's right knee and started kneading his sore thigh muscles. Justin was too surprised to protest, and didn't want to anyway once Jake started working the knots out of his legs. "Craig used to get cramp like this when he was young," Jake said conversationally. "It took him ages to learn to warm down after a football match."

He should tell Jake to stop, Justin thought reluctantly. He never wanted to owe Jake anything, not after all Jake had put him and Becca through. Then again, maybe he didn't owe Jake for this. Jake needed something to do, he'd said as much that afternoon, and here was Justin providing something for him to do. Really, Jake owed him. Besides...

"Oh God, that feels good," he moaned as a particularly stubborn muscle finally relaxed under Jake's ministrations.

"Could you keep your orgasms quieter?" Tom asked amusedly, dumping their evening rations beside them.

Jake tensed and looked up a little wildly. "Tom, it's not—"

"Don't stop!" Justin interrupted. Jake could have a hissy fit about his manliness later if he really wanted, but Justin didn't want him to leave off until his legs were done with complaining.

Jake gritted his teeth and returned his attention to Justin's legs. "Stop doing that," he growled at Tom.

"When you rise to it every time? Not a chance."

Finn joined them after a moment. He paused briefly to grunt approvingly at Jake before setting to the food.

It didn't take long for Jake to finish smoothing the kinks out of Justin's muscles, and Justin felt so much better for it. "Thanks," he sighed as Jake sat back. Jake actually smiled at him before remembering that they hated each other and scowling instead. Justin couldn't help but feel a little sad at that; he wasn't about to forgive Jake for what he had done to Mrs Valentine, or to Becca for that matter, but he was beginning to appreciate that the man had his good side too.

The rations were as unappealing as ever. Justin felt more dispirited as they chewed in silence; not that his spirits had been particularly high to start with, but having Jake paying some attention to him had helped a bit. "No fire?" he asked, thinking that a camp fire would make things seem more cheerful. At least he could pretend they were going to toast marshmallows around it or something normal like that.

Finn gestured at the thinning mist. "Not unless you want to tell everything for miles around that there are some tasty treats over here," Tom translated.

"Great." Justin shrank in on himself, even less cheered by the thought of what might be lurking out there in the night. At least the glimmer from the mist was less likely to keep him awake now, but even that wasn't all that comforting.

Finn sighed and dug in the packs for a moment. "It's going to get cold," he said, handing out blankets. "Keep close and conserve body heat."

"It's shameful the things he'll say to get his hands on my body," Tom confided.

Finn just rolled his eyes. "One of us will be on watch," he pointed out.

"See? Nothing like as much fun as teasing you," Tom said to Jake.

"Not that that stops you," Finn muttered.

Justin and Jake shared a look. Jake looked as unenthusiastic as Justin felt about having to cosy up to each other, but he didn't look like he was going to have a panic over his masculinity again. Maybe that had been Tom's plan all along. Not that Justin cared about Jake's feelings all that much, or cared about anything at all right now to be honest. "I guess we don't have much choice," he said.

Jake grimaced, then shook out his blanket and wrapped himself in it tightly. "Just keep your hands to yourself," he said. It was probably supposed to sound threatening, but Justin thought it was a bit pathetic really. He managed not to sigh as he curled up next to Jake, close enough not to feel too cold but not so close as to touch. He expected to lie there uncomfortably awake for hours, but the exhaustion of the day caught up with him and before he knew it his eyes were closing.

It seemed like no time had passed when he was shaken awake, but everything was damp and clammy and there was more light and mist around them. Also Jake and he must have shifted round in the night, because Justin found his face pressed into Jake's shoulder and their arms around each other's waists. It felt comforting, or it would have if Jake hadn't been (a) a guy, and (b) Jake. As it was, Justin didn't feel much rested, and from the listless way he was pushed off as they slumped into consciousness, Jake felt much the same.

They ate a cold breakfast in silence, even Tom's spirits dampened by the conditions. The mist closed in as they saddled up, evidently deciding that would be the most inconvenient thing it could do. It did feel that intentional to Justin, stupid as it sounded even in his own head. Whatever Alderley Edge had been like before, it felt like it didn't like people any more. It was like being in the caves, except that it was less personal; the place hated everyone, not just Justin.

He tried to ride alongside Jake as much as he could once they set off, but it wasn't always possible. Sometimes they seemed to be in wide fields, or at least clearings, but at others they were reduced to single file, Finn picking a careful path through evil-smelling marshes while Tom brought up the rear.

"This isn't right," Jake muttered at one point as they reached another patch of boggy ground. "I never saw any marshes when we came up here. It was all open plains and woods, nothing like this."

"Maybe you just didn't come through this bit?" Justin offered. He didn't believe it, though, and Jake didn't seem to either.

"They did say this place wasn't exactly real any more," he said dubiously, urging his horse forward behind Finn.

"Jake, nothing that we've seem in the last two days ought to be real." It made a weird kind of sense, though. Not that talking about magic really made sense, but if they were stuck in Nancy's twisted idea of Arthurian myth, that was full of enchanted forests and dangerous, magical places. They were just lucky, Justin mused as he managed to get his horse to follow Jake's, that all they'd had to deal with was lousy visibility and bad terrain.

That, of course, was when the monster attacked.

It erupted out of the mist to his side, some sort of huge lizard. That was as much as Justin could tell before his horse screamed and skittered away from the danger, and Justin fell off. Dazed, he looked up to see the creature roar before fixing him with malevolent eyes and stomping forward. He wanted to call it a dragon, but that was wrong; it had no wings, and anyway it just wasn't right somehow. Whatever it was, this mother and father of all overgrown iguanas seemed to have decided that he was lunch. Justin tried to scramble away, only to find himself trapped in the bog.

Oh my God, Justin had time to think, I'm going to die.

Then Jake was between him and it, screaming and slashing away, looking like he had been born to sword and saddle. As far as Justin was concerned he was a real knight on horseback, and sod the fact he wasn't wearing armour.

The creature jerked back from Jake's sword, a line of red appearing on its muzzle. It reared up, roaring it's anger, and Jake danced his horse back out of range. As he did so, two arrows flew past, one embedding itself firmly in the monster's eye while the other pierced its throat in a spray of blood. It fell back to the ground with a dull thud and twitched for a few moments before going still. Then all Justin could hear was the blood thundering in his ears as he finally caught up with not being dead after all.

"Not half bad," he heard Tom say. "Stupidly dangerous, but not bad at all."

"You're still keeping your elbow too low," was Finn's contribution.

Jake ignored them. He dismounted and turned urgently to Justin. "Are you OK?" he asked.

"I'm fine," Justin told him, "just bruised my pride." He thrashed around some more, completely failing to make any progress out of the marsh. "Uh, and I'm stuck."

Jake grasped his arm and pulled, and in short order Justin was back on dry land, face to face with his rescuer. Jake was actually looking happy, something Justin hadn't seen for months. Hadn't wanted to see, for that matter. "Why?" he blurted out.

Jake's face shut down. "Why what?"

Justin felt like kicking himself for ruining the mood. "Why did you put yourself in danger like that?" he asked in a more subdued voice. Why did you risk yourself for me, he meant, when Jake had nothing to gain from it and every incentive to let Justin rot.

"Yeah, well, we all make mistakes," Jake said, finally letting go of Justin and turning away.

Finn appeared at Justin's side, leading Justin's recovered horse, before he could protest that he didn't mean that. "Mount up," Finn ordered, shoving the reins into Justin's hands. "Scavengers from miles around will be heading here now, and we don't want to meet them."

It was at least an hour before Finn let up and allowed them to stop for lunch. Justin had trouble staying upright again, though he had to admit as he chewed his bread and cheese that he wasn't feeling quite as exhausted as yesterday. It didn't help much when Finn set them to sword practice again. It particularly didn't help Justin's ego that while Tom had him waving his sword at thin air again, Jake actually got to cross swords with Finn. Jake looked more energised and alert when they finished than Justin had seen in a long while, which was great for Jake but only served to reinforce how much Justin didn't fit in here.

Justin chewed over that indigestible thought as they rode into the afternoon. Jake mattered here; the things Josh had said all pointed to that, and the way Jake was thriving under such adversity pretty much proved it. All Justin had ever done was hold him back from that. It was Justin's fault that Becca was dead; it was Justin's fault that Jake had been so worn down before they had ended up here; and it was Justin's fault that Jake had nearly got himself killed earlier. As far as Justin could tell, he was just another mouth to feed here, with no talent for any of the things that Ste's village needed. He couldn't defend himself or anyone else, or do anything that anyone actually needed. They really would be better off if he was dead.

It would be so easy to do now, too. In this mist, all he would have to do was move just a little off the path and then wait quietly for everyone else to pass. No one would notice him, just another shape in the haze, and no one would really care either. He wouldn't have to do anything then, just sink quietly into the bog and stop being a drain on everyone else. A drain on Jake.

Justin raised his eyes apathetically for one last look at Jake before he drifted off. He could see him clearly in the glow of the mist, shoulders once again slumping. That just went to prove it as far as Justin was concerned; even trailing along behind all Justin did was remind Jake of what he didn't have any more and make things harder for him. Even as he watched, the light swirled around Jake and he seemed to collapse in on himself a little more. As if...

Hang on a second, Justin thought, the _light_ swirled?

It was as if he had thrown a switch. His thoughts were suddenly crystal clear, focused on one thing and one thing only; Jake was under some sort of attack. The swirling lights were actually two or three pale blue globes, will-o-the-wisps barely visible against the background glow, but every time they skimmed near Jake he seemed a little more listless and lifeless. Justin urged his horse forward, his anger directed firmly at the lights. "Leave him alone," he growled, for all the good it would do.

To his surprise, one of the globes exploded with a soft 'whomph', startling Jake out of his reverie. The others shifted colour to a light crimson and moved in a more agitated manner. So they didn't like anger, did they? Well, Justin thought, right now he had anger and to spare. He gritted his teeth, muttered he knew not what under his breath and radiated his sheer fury that these things had dared to hurt Jake.

He was rewarded with four more soft explosions, two around Jake and two more near his head. They must have been affecting him too, Justin realised, getting him so depressed he couldn't think straight. He took a grim satisfaction from their destruction, and spent a moment or two looking around in case there were more lurking nearby.

"What was that?" Justin turned back to see Jake looking at him oddly.

"Some kind of glowy things that were making us suicidally depressed," Justin told him. He grinned crookedly. "They didn't like me when I was angry."

"Yeah, but your—" Jake cut himself off abruptly as Finn and Tom rode up to them.

"What happened?" Tom asked lightly, looking alert for all that.

"Something was playing head games with us," Jake said before Justin could sing his own praises. "Justin managed to scare it off." He said it like it was no big deal, which annoyed Justin no end. Justin opened his mouth to object, but Jake gave him a glare that stopped him in his tracks. For some reason Jake didn't want Tom and Finn to know exactly what Justin had done, and he seemed to think it really mattered.

Justin seethed quietly, but all he said was, "It didn't take much scaring, whatever it was."

Finn considered this. "Stick closer," was all he said.

"Yes, sir!" Justin snapped off a sarcastic salute, which Finn duly ignored. It wasn't as if he and Jake had deliberately drifted away from the others.

They did stick closer together after that, though. Justin made sure he could always see Jake ahead of him, worried that the lights might come back for another go, and he was well aware of Tom's horse following his practically nose to tail.

Fortunately it wasn't long before the ground firmed up and travelling close became less of a problem. Justin was surprised when Jake beckoned to him, and still not a little pissed off that Jake had made light of what he'd done, but he urged his mount forward to walk alongside Jake all the same.

"Your eyes glowed," Jake murmured before Justin could say anything sarcastic.

"My what?"

"When you burst those light-bubbles, your eyes glowed."

Justin didn't know what to say. Jake sounded quietly matter of fact, and it never even occurred to Justin that he might be lying. All Justin could think of was that Finn wouldn't like it, and Justin wouldn't survive that. "I didn't do anything," he insisted, keeping his voice down so that the others wouldn't hear.

"I know," Jake hissed back, and Justin could hear the strain in his voice at last. Jake was as scared about this as he was. "Somehow you still saved my life. Justin, I..."

"I know," it was Justin's turn to say. In all of this practically all they had were themselves, and they couldn't even trust themselves any more. Jake was turning into a fighter good enough to get actual compliments off Finn, and Justin didn't know what the hell he was any more. "God, I hope we find this Well thing soon," he muttered quietly.

"Still impatient," said an amused voice off to the side, "after all this time."


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there is horse-trading at the Well, but no trading of horses.

Jake whirled with the others towards the voice. His sword stayed in its scabbard though; he knew that voice, even if he couldn't believe his ears.

"Who are you?" Tom demanded.

There was a chuckle, and a breeze sprang up amongst them, stirring the mist. It quickly parted to reveal a short, grey-haired man standing beside a rocky outcropping from which a small stream wound.

"Have you forgotten me so soon, Tom?" Jack Osborn asked.

"Jack!" Jake had never been so glad to see the man. "What happened? What are you doing here? Where's Charlie?" He started to dismount, but Finn held out a hand to stop him.

"All good questions," Finn said. "Also, who and what are you?"

"He's my step-father," Jake told him. He was certain of it.

"Jack?" Tom asked wonderingly. "Is it really you?"

"Aye," Jack said, smiling gently. "And all the better for seeing what a fine young man you've grown into. As for what I am..." He straightened up and looked back to Finn. "I hear you're looking for the Wizard of the Well?"

"You?" Jake couldn't help it, his incredulity just slipped out. He had known Jack ever since they had moved to Hollyoaks, and he had always been such a decent, ordinary person. Jake had been delighted when his mother had decided to marry Jack because he offered them a stability that his real father hadn't had. For Jack to be a wizard out of legend was just ludicrous.

"Him." Justin's voice was flinty, but when Jake looked he seemed more scared than anything. "I don't know how I know, but he's the one."

Jack nodded approvingly. "Most people see what they expect to see," he said as Finn, too, raised a sceptical eyebrow. "Perhaps you would have believed this more?" He spoke a single incomprehensible word and for several long moments a taller robed man stood before them, his eyes glowing with power.

Jake started in surprise, not so much at the magic he had been half-expecting but at the glowing eyes. Jack, or whoever he really was, looked exactly like Justin had when he had driven off those Will-o-the-Wisps. Jake looked over to Justin to see him staring at Jack in near panic. Scared of himself, Jake realised. All that magic seemed to do in this nightmare of theirs was destroy, and Justin was scared that was all he would ever do. Jake didn't stop to think, didn't want to remember that a couple of days ago he had believed exactly that of Justin; he just reached out and touched Justin's arm, trying to ground him, to make him believe he was a better man.

"We might at that," Finn said to Jack, paying no attention to anyone else. He leaned forward in his saddle, eyes hard. "We've needed your help for ten years or more. Where were you?"

"Finn!" Tom sounded horrified, but Jack raised a hand to cut him off before he could verbally lay into his friend.

"It's a fair question, laddie," Jack said. "There were many times I could have acted and many lives I could have saved. I couldn't have stopped Morgana and Mordred though, not forever. There's only one chance to truly stop this."

"You hid us, didn't you?" Justin asked suddenly. Jack nodded. "Why? Why us?"

"Because you had to get here, and Mordred would have known the second you stepped across his barrier."

"Mordred?" Tom frowned. "I thought this was all Morgana's doing."

Jack shook his head. "Morgana may sit on the throne, but Mordred is the power behind it. She has her magics, but the truly spectacular work is his."

"Who's Mordred?" Jake asked. "I mean if Morgana is Nancy, is Mordred someone we know as well?"

"Darren," Tom said sadly.

Jake winced. So Jack's son was the one responsible for this. That had to have hurt. "Jack," he began, but Jack held his hand up again, cutting him off.

"I know you have lots of questions, but we don't have much time left. They've found the village."

Finn scowled and Tom swore. "We need to—"

"Do what we were told," Jake interrupted, suddenly sure. Jack hadn't answered Justin's most important question, he noticed: why them? He and Justin had to be important somehow, and Josh had as good as told them to get here now. Struggling to remember what he had been told about the legend these last few days, Jake dismounted and led his horse up to Jack.

"Does Arthur have need of a horse as he awakens?" he asked, far more formally than he had intended.

"Arthur never slept here," Jack told him equally formally, "but he has need of horses all the same. If you would have me open the gates, you must drink of the well."

Jake looked at the stream running from the rock. "The well," he repeated.

Jack smiled. "Artistic license," he said.

Jake rolled his eyes and started to bend down to drink, but Tom slithered off his horse and reached out to stop him. "Someone else should go first," he said, "just in case. We don't know anything about it."

"It's never harmed you, laddie," Jack said, grinning at him, "though Finn might not agree."

"Our stream?" Tom asked, grinning himself. Jack nodded. "Well, that's different then." He quickly scooped up some of the water in his cupped hand and drank it down. Finn made a strangled sound of alarm, but nothing obvious happened.

After a moment, Tom shrugged. "Still tastes good," he said.

Jack nodded, then looked to Jake. "Me next, I guess," Jake said, and stooped to drink before he could chicken out.

The taste of it was cold, clear and refreshing, just like it had been in the wood. Jake savoured it for a moment, then all that cold clarity burst across his mind. He remembered everything he had ever done, every word and every gesture, all in a single moment. When that moment was done, more memories pressed in on him, memories of things he had never done and people who weren't him, but who he had unquestionably been. They stretched back so far through history that they should have been overwhelming, but they weren't; everything he remembered had it's place, filling out his self until he finally knew who Jake Dean really was.

He straightened up and looked at Justin, finally seeing him as the latest echo of one of the constants of his life. One of the people whose lives wound around his, always there in one form or another despite the battering they all took. It took him a moment to remember the right name from this life; "Justin," he said, "it's your turn."

Justin, typically himself, all but fell off his horse as he dismounted. Jake managed not to roll his eyes in exasperation at his old companion's physical ineptness because he could see how scared Justin was about all this. Justin was scared of the magic he carried, scared that he would do something stupid with it and ruin everything because that was all he thought he could do. Jake didn't know whether Mordred had used some subtle influence to put him and Justin at loggerheads, but he was determined that would end now. He needed Justin to believe in himself, and not just because he was the only one with the power to take on Mordred.

He reached out and steadied Justin, putting on what he hoped would be a reassuring smile. "It'll give you all the answers you want," he said gently. "And the ones you need too."

Justin looked at him narrowly. "What did it do?" he asked bluntly.

Jake couldn't blame him for being suspicious. They had been anything but friendly this time round, so Justin would be taking a big risk trusting him. "It let me remember," he said gently. "Which kind of made it obvious what an idiot I've been, but that's nothing new. You'll see."

Justin frowned and hesitated a moment longer, then he knelt and scooped up some water for himself. Jake knew the moment he realised who they were and why this had to have been done to them. "Oh God," Justin groaned, "we've really screwed it up this time, haven't we?"

Jake forced himself to smile. "Nothing that can't be fixed with a sufficiently brilliant plan," he said, trying for some of his old optimism. And in truth he already had some ideas for sneaking back into Hollyoaks village right under Morgana's nose.

"I suppose you're going to want me to drink too," Finn said warily, breaking into Jake's thoughts.

"If you like, laddie," Jack answered. "You could probably do with the refreshment."

Finn knelt and drank after exchanging a look with Tom. He paused for a moment, then shrugged and stood up.

"Nothing?" Tom asked him.

Finn shook his head. "Nothing," he confirmed.

Tom looked quizzically at Jack. "Why didn't we get the same eye-opener as they did, whatever it was?" he asked curiously.

"You didn't have any past lives to remember," Jack told him kindly. "Not many do, which makes your skills all the more remarkable."

"Past lives?" Tom asked excitedly. "Who were they? Do they remember anything useful?"

"If they do," Finn cut in, "that's nice for them. We've got a village to save, though."

"We've got a world to save," Justin corrected as Finn reached for his horse's reins, stopping the man in his tracks.

They had that, Jake knew. Somehow, he and Justin were the keys to undoing Mordred's spell and putting things straight again. He'd let Justin work out the how of that, while he figured out how to get them close enough. And for that, he needed men.

He looked solemnly at Jack. "I think it's time to wake those hundred knights up," he said.

Jack smiled and gave him a slight bow. "As you wish," he said, and spoke another strange, almost-familiar word. Behind him the rock outcropping split open, revealing a stone stairway winding downwards. "You should know that only ninety eight lie sleeping there," he added as Justin walked towards the cave mouth.

Jake raised an eyebrow. "You're not counting him are you?" he asked in mock horror, pointing at Justin. Justin attempted to glare at him, which would have worked better if he wasn't grinning. Jack just chuckled.

"The legends couldn't even get that right?" Finn said, clearly unimpressed. Justin rolled his eyes but said nothing, instead disappearing into the cave.

"Arthur and a hundred of his knights would ride out, that was the promise," Jack corrected him amusedly. Tom frowned, but Jack continued before he could say anything. "D'you think this pair might do for the last two?"

Jake considered for possibly as long as two seconds. "They have the skill, they have the attitude, and I don't think their liege lord would object too much under the circumstances," he agreed, slightly startled at how easily the words 'liege lord' had come to him. He turned back to Finn and Tom. "The question is, do you want to become Arthur's knights?"

"You can do that?" Finn asked sceptically.

Tom studied Jake intently, frowning for once. "You can't be," he said. "No way."

"Will you accept Arthur as your king? Will you serve him as long as he... um..." Jake trailed off as he realised there were going to be some technical difficulties with the traditional forms.

"As long as he is worthy to wield Excalibur?" Justin suggested, reappearing with an armload of equipment. "Here, you'll need this."

Jake caught the scabbarded sword that was tossed to him. "You have no respect for tradition," he complained.

"Jake, we are tradition."

"I rest my case. So," he turned back to the others and became serious again. "Will you?"

Tom stood gaping for a moment, then gabbled "Yes! Seriously, Round Table and all? Of course we do!"

Finn spared a glance for his excitable partner, then frowned at Jake again. Jake understood the unstated question: was this real? He drew himself up to his full height and slowly slipped Excalibur out of its sheath, holding the blade in a salute so that Finn could get a good look at it.

Finn studied the sword for a long moment, then sank to his knees. Which was all the answer he should expect from Finn O'Connor, Jake thought. He looked again at Tom, who dropped to his knees beside his friend. "Then arise, Sir Thomas, Sir Finn," he said, dubbing them smartly on the shoulders.

They arose. "So if you're Arthur, does that make Jack Merlin?" Tom asked, grinning like a loon.

"No, that would be me," Justin said. He looked into the cave and spoke a few more strange words, and Jake managed not to be terribly surprised when two neatly folded chainmail shirts and tabards floated out and deposited themselves at his new knights' feet.

"So," Jake said, turning to Jack. He still had no idea who his step-father might be, but he clearly had magic and if he had guarded the Well he must be on their side. "Would you like to help us give Morgana and Mordred their just desserts? Can't let Justin take all the credit for the magical support, after all, he'll just get big-headed."

"Thanks a bundle, Your Majesty," Justin put in. Tom snickered, and even Finn managed a small smile.

Jack smiled broadly. "It has been a while since I stretched myself," he said, "let's see if I've still got it in me." He held out his arms, then his body seemed to shimmer and stretch, and with a deafening roar the Great Dragon of Britain took to the air.

"Oh," said Jake in a very small voice.

******

Justin couldn't fault Morgana on her sense of drama. She had remodelled the Hollyoaks village square into a castle courtyard, with the Loft a soaring stone keep that would have left a Hollywood set designer green with envy. The entrance that Justin knew so well was still at first floor level, but the metal stairs up to it had been replaced with sweeping stone staircase leading to a big, broad balcony where Morgana could display herself in all her queenly glory.

And she was doing it magnificently, Justin had to admit. She stood there as if the crowd had only squashed themselves around the edge of the square to adore her and obey her every whim. The rebel villagers chained up in the middle looked pathetic in comparison, exactly as they were meant to. Even Mordred, who looked bored with the whole business from his place a little behind Morgana, seemed to be properly princely in her presence.

Justin had no effort to spare to listen to Morgana's ranting, mercifully. While she gloried in her triumph, he was busy juggling a hell of a lot of magic and keeping it all beneath her interest. She couldn't be allowed to notice anything was wrong until it was too late to stop them. It wasn't easy when he hadn't cast those spells before in this lifetime, even if they were simple illusions and misdirections, but Ar— Jake needed the impossible done, and as usual Justin would do it.

Disguised as yet more of Morgana's guards — nothing to see here! — Jake, Justin, Tom and Finn started slowly up the staircase towards Morgana. At the same Ste, Ravi and a bewildered-looking Josh were pushed to the front of the balcony, their hands bound behind them. Defiant as they were, they looked like ragged urchins compared to Morgana, and she looked gleefully vicious to have them finally at her mercy.

Tom started to surge forward, but Jake quickly clamped a hand on his shoulder. "Gently does it," Jake hissed. "They mustn't notice us until we're up there with them."

Reluctantly, Tom slowed down and gave Jake an approximation of his usual smile. "I'd hate to ruin the surprise."

"How the mighty are fallen," Morgana crowed at Ravi, still blessedly unaware of their approach. "The noble Lancelot a cripple. And you," she turned to Ste, "mighty Gwaine, a thief besotted with a fool, leading an army of children. Pathetic."

"What does that make you, losing to us these last ten years?" Ste shot back.

Morgana sneered back at him. "The victor," she said. "You've been no more than an irritation, your petty raids never had any chance of stopping me. You had your freedom while it amused me to let you live, but that time is over."

"Time is coming," Josh contradicted, though he looked around uncertainly.

"The time of your death," Morgana told him pleasantly.

"Look," Mordred interrupted, "can we get this over with? You wouldn't believe how whiny this body is getting."

Interesting, Justin thought. There was a distinction between Mordred and Darren, was there? Mordred must be using some sort of possession rather than having been reincarnated as Darren. If it had lasted this long, the spell must be anchored in some object. Now if Morgana's love of drama would just spin this out for another thirty seconds, that was all they needed to be up on the balcony and in amongst Morgana's men, and Justin would have a chance to see just what it was that Mordred was controlling Darren with.

"Complicated," Josh muttered. "Time is... complicated."

"No, it's really quite simple," Morgana said, stalking over to him. Without warning she whipped out a dagger and buried it in Josh's stomach. Josh collapsed as Ste screamed his name and lunged forward, only to be restrained by one of the guards. Morgana sneered. "He's going to die," she told Ste. "You're all going to die, slowly enough that you can hear your precious people dying before you do."

Ste ignored her, still trying to get free. "Josh!" he shouted again, his voice full of grief.

Josh smiled weakly. "It's OK," he said, "it's time. Was and will be. Once and future." Justin felt his skin crawl and saw Josh's eyes glow as a single word hit them all with the full force of prophecy: "Now."

Justin's concentration slipped. He saw Mordred's head whip round to them as they reached the balcony, but it didn't matter. Jake and Tom had already charged forward to take the guards nearest them by surprise, while Finn's arrows made short work of the guards restraining Ste and Ravi.

"No," he heard Mordred shout. "It's impossible. You couldn't break through the barrier, I made sure of it."

"Oh you know us," Justin said cheerily. "The impossible just takes a bit longer." He tried to make it sound like they did this sort of thing every day. Of course, Arthur and Merlin had used to do this sort of thing every day...

"Delay them," Mordred shouted to Morgana. "I need time to take on Emrys." He ran for the door, wisely in Justin's opinion; even with magic protecting him, Finn's last arrow only missed Mordred by the narrowest of margins.

Morgana meanwhile had her own sword out and was yelling to the guards in the square. "Kill the rebels! Call out the garrison" she shouted. Justin wasn't too concerned; Arthur's hundred knights had had plenty of time to get into the square before he had lost control of the illusion. Morgana's thugs were going to be far too busy to start slaughtering innocents.

"I'm afraid your garrison has been detained by lunch," Jake told Morgana as he dispatched the last guard on the balcony and stalked towards her. As if on cue, Justin heard Kilgarrah roar and saw the dragon swoop down onto the guard keep. "Oh, I'm sorry, they've been detained _as_ lunch. I always get that wrong."

Morgana grabbed Ravi and held her sword to his throat, using his body as a living shield. Justin heard Finn curse under his breath, unable to get a clean shot. She spoke a word that Justin recognised as a gripping spell, telekinesis they would call it nowadays, and Ste jerked upright from where he had been kneeling helplessly beside Josh. "Stay back, brother," Morgana said to Jake, "unless you want your lap-dogs slaughtered."

"Don't stop," Ste shouted with difficulty, struggling against the magic holding him by the throat. "It doesn't matter if we die as long as you get her."

"How about we save you and get her?" Justin said. He held his hand out towards Morgana and carefully thought one ancient word very hard while keeping his mouth shut.

Nothing apparently happened. "You'll not get this sword away from me that easily," Morgana sneered. "I'm ready for your parlour tricks, Merlin."

"Oh, that wasn't aimed at you," Justin said smugly.

Ravi's good hand shot up, the ropes that Justin had magically untied falling away. He pushed Morgana's arm away and twisted free before she could make good on her threat, then went for her wrist in a one-handed attempt to pry the sword away from her. She shrieked and threw Ste at Ravi, and only some very fast spellwork from Justin stopped her breaking Ste's neck in the process. Finn cursed again as he had to pull his shot high to avoid hitting Ste, and before anyone could sort out what was happening Morgana had darted inside.

Justin hurried up to Josh, wincing as he saw how much blood had already soaked into Josh's shirt. He probed with his magic as quickly as he could, assessing the damage the dagger thrust had done. It wasn't good.

Ste slid up next to him and cradled Josh's head in his lap. "How are you, love?" he asked gently.

Josh grimaced. "Sorry, Ste," he said in a voice clouded with pain. "I think this is it. I guess I should have dodged, huh?"

Ste looked up at Justin pleadingly, his face more open and vulnerable than Justin had ever seen it. All Justin could do was shake his head. "There's too much damage," he said quietly. "I could stabilise him long enough to get him to hospital, if there was a hospital to get him to, but in the middle of a fight? Sorry, the best I can do is take away his pain."

"Hey, it's not so bad," Josh said before Ste could state the obvious — what damn good was all Justin's magic if it couldn't save Josh now?

"Not so bad? You're dying, Josh! There's not much worse than that."

"It won't be for long," Josh told Ste reassuringly. Justin was no less confused than Ste looked. He had no idea what Josh might be talking about.

"You'll still be dead," Ste said emptily, "and I'll be alone."

"It won't be for long," Josh repeated. "There's a choice they have to make, and it's not fair, but it never is for them. I can't see what happens afterwards, but I know that whatever happens we'll be together again soon. Love you," he said faintly.

"Love you too, idiot."

"Do you think they'll remember for us?"

"Course they will," Ste said firmly. "We kept Her Nibs at bay, didn't we? You're the one who gave away everything so that we'd know what we had to do. No one will ever be able to forget that. I'll make sure that they..." He paused, looked down at Josh, and swallowed. "They'll always remember, I promise."

Gently, Justin reach over and closed eyes that would see neither present nor future again.

They didn't get long to mourn Josh. Justin knew that they couldn't possibly stop in the middle of a fight, but he still wished that Jake had been able to wait longer before disturbing them.

Ste looked up at Jake. There were tear tracks on his face, but the look he gave Jake was positively ferocious. "Why aren't you in there killing her," Ste demanded.

"Because I need to know the battle out here is in good hands," Jake said simply. "Can you handle it right now, Baron Steven?"

"I'm not a bloody baron."

"You are if I say so." Ste seemed thrown by Jake's matter of fact reply. More importantly, Justin thought, Jake had surprised Ste out of his grief, at least for the time being. Jake didn't give Ste time to recover. He laid a hand on his shoulder and looked him straight in the eye. "Once again: Steven of Hollyoaks, are you willing and able to take field command of my army while I deal with Morgana and Mordred?"

Ste gaped for a moment, then seemed to pull himself together. "I'll take out these bastards for you," he said eventually, which was as formal an acceptance as they were ever going to get out of Ste, Justin reckoned. "Just make sure she pays for what she did to Josh."

"To him and to everyone else," Justin promised. Morgana had hurt too many people over too long a time. If there ever had been a time when she could have been saved it was long ago. Now the best they could do was to stop her twisting and breaking more lives.

"And you were right about the other thing, too," Jake said. "We are never going to forget what you and Josh have done, all the lives you saved over the years. Nobody pegged either of you two as heroes, but you've both been that and more."

Jake's tone was pure Arthur, and Justin wasn't surprised to see Ste swell a little at the honest praise. They stayed like that for a breath, kneeling over Josh's body, then Ste shook himself. "Right," he said, all business-like again, "we've got things to do."

Indeed they had, Justin thought. Things that should have been done centuries ago.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More people die, and Our Heroes have some horrible choices to make.

It didn't take long for Jake to figure out that Morgana had based her castle on Camelot. Not that Camelot's layout fitted inside the keep he had seen from the square, but Jake had watched enough _Dr Who_ in his youth that the inside being larger than the outside didn't throw him. Much.

What worried Jake a good deal more as Tom and Finn made light work of the guards in the ante-chamber were the sideways looks Justin kept throwing his way. Arthur may have been oblivious to Merlin's I'm-not-telling-you-something-because-it'll-make-your-life-harder face, but Jake had spent far too long in the past watching Justin suspiciously to miss it.

"Alright," he said, before they went any further, "what is it?"

To Justin's credit, he didn't bother pulling out Merlin's mentally subnormal innocent expression. "I'm pretty sure Darren's possessed, not reincarnated. Odds are, so is Nancy."

OK, that wasn't good. Arthur had long been resigned to killing Morgana and Mordred as the only way of stopping them, but for Jake to have to kill his step-brother and sister-in-law when they were innocent was a whole other problem. "Maybe that will give us another way to weaken Morgana and Mordred," he suggested.

Justin snorted. "When are we ever that lucky?"

A fair point. Josh had said they would have a hard decision to make, and this certainly counted. "We'll save them if we can," he said firmly. "If not, we'll do what we must and get very, very drunk afterwards."

With that he turned and kicked open the doors to the Great Hall.

Camelot's Great Hall had been a light and cheery place, well suited for both feasting and honest judgement. Somehow, Morgana had made the same space into a gloomy, forbidding hall that promised neither mercy nor justice. There were no windows, the only lighting coming from a massive torch that was suspended somehow from the ceiling. A torch that was screaming and writhing, and Jake stopped dead as he remembered what Tom had said about Warren. God, if he'd been tortured like this for the last decade just for being his usual sneering self... This had to stop.

Fortunately none of Morgana's dozen personal guards were able to take advantage of Jake's hesitation. Tom and Finn pushed past into the hall, engaging the first few guards to come forwards with their usual devastating enthusiasm.

"Only six each," Tom observed. "It hardly seems fair." Finn just grunted as he parried, twisted and slashed. Jake looked at the gloom around the edge of the hall that the torchlight did nothing to dispel, and hoped that a dozen guards was all they would be facing.

Justin stepped up beside Jake, his sword held as inexpertly as ever. "There's something powerful back up there," he said, indicating behind the throne. "It's got to be the focus of the spell that's stopping technology working. I'll bet you anything that's where Mordred has gone." He paused to do something that turned the spell Morgana threw at them into a smudge of colour in the air.

Jake suppressed Arthur's instinctual distrust of magic. He knew the stories of Merlin's loyalty that Arthur had been too much part of to understand, and he trusted Justin. Which was stupid, but now wasn't the time. "Can you tell where it is?" he asked. His sword licked out to strike one of the guards trying to crowd Finn, and despite the shallowness of the cut the man collapsed like a sack of spuds. Oh yes, Jake thought, they were magical guards, and no magic could stand up to Excalibur.

Justin concentrated for a moment. "It's in your old rooms. The ones you had as Prince," he clarified.

There were ways from here to there that didn't involve going through the back of the Great Hall, Jake realised, and of course Merlin— Justin would know the servants' passages. They couldn't risk spending too much time here and letting Mordred get ready for them.

"You go mess up Mordred's preparations," he decided, "we'll catch up when we can."

Justin flashed him a smile and disappeared through the door they had just come in through. "Be careful," Jake shouted after him. There was no knowing the trouble Mer— Justin could get himself into.

Jake ducked rapidly under another nasty-looking spell from Morgana and frowned. This wouldn't do, he thought; he needed to keep Morgana too busy to use her magic. "Is that the best you've got, sister?" he taunted, carefully manoeuvring the guardsman in front of him. As he hoped she flung another violent spell at him, and Jake swung his sword at the guard, forcing him to step into the spell's path. He was right, he thought as the man crumpled soundlessly like a crushed tin can; whatever that spell was, it was very nasty.

Muttering, "Keep them off my back," Jake charged through the gap that Morgana had conveniently created for him. She drew her sword quickly and met Jake's charge with a familiar angry confidence.

"You won't get away this time, _brother,_ " she said, spitting out the word like it was the vilest insult. Jake laughed at her.

One furious exchange of blows later, Jake was having to force the grin to stay on his face. Morgana had lost none of her skill with a sword, and Jake was hard pressed to hold his own. He had always been able to take her easily in the past, but then his body had spent more than two days building up the muscles needed for swordplay. Knowledge could only do so much.

Time for some psychological warfare, then. "Don't let her do this, Nancy," he said evenly, looking Morgana in the eyes.

Morgana laughed at him. "The mouse hasn't squeaked in years, brother," she mocked. "She couldn't distract me now even if she wanted to."

"I'm sure you'd love her to think that. Doesn't mean it's true." Jake swung hard, trying to get Morgana to back up by main force.

If Morgana was the slightest bit unbalanced, inside or out, she didn't show it. "She never had a chance," she said dismissively. "Between you and me, I don't think she wanted to be your Guinevere this time around."

Hang on, Jake thought, that couldn't be right. Becca was his Guinevere, surely. She was the one he had loved, the one he had married, the one he had fought Justin over...

Evidently sensing his hesitation, Morgana launched a series of quick strikes, forcing Jake to back up a little. She smirked. "Face it, you're no fun to be around when you're pining after something you think you can't have. Tell me, have you fucked your precious Merlin yet?"

Jake had braced himself for the verbal attack. He had Arthur's long practice at ignoring Morgana's assaults on his manhood. He even managed to keep it together when an image of Ste and Josh staring achingly at each other crossed his mind. The thought of Justin looking at him like that... it shook Jake that that didn't disgust him, and maybe even intrigued him.

Of course Morgana took advantage of his distraction. Jake managed to bring Excalibur across in time to parry her sword, but she had him thoroughly on the back foot now. She rained blows down on him, forcing him backwards, towards the shadowy edges of the hall.

He heard Tom's cry of "Look out" before Finn barrelled into him, knocking him aside. Jake twisted as he went, engaging Morgana's sword so she couldn't strike at Finn's back. That gave him an excellent view of Finn parrying the huge sword that loomed out of the darkness, attempting to knock it aside.

It was a good parry. Near perfect, Arthur would have said, and he didn't praise bad swordsmanship any more than Finn did. Arthur — Jake would have bet on that parry deflecting an ogre's club enough to save him from serious injury. It didn't get the chance; the way that Finn's sword shivered and shattered on contact could only mean that magic was involved.

The blow caught Finn on the shoulder, tore through his mail like it wasn't there, and bit deeply into the flesh. Finn went down, hard.

There was an incoherent cry, then Tom was among them, his sword flashing with furious speed, and now it was Morgana's turn to be forced backwards. Jake risked a glance at the rest of the room, reassured to see the last of the guardsmen slumping to the ground, before he turned his attention to the creature emerging from the shadows.

Once upon a time it had been Calvin. Once upon a time. Now it was a good two feet taller than Calvin had been, and he had been no midget to start with. It was grotesquely over-muscled with it, its neck so short that the comparatively shrunken head seemed to sit directly on its shoulders. And the hatred in those eyes — nothing of Calvin Valentine lived in that stare, nothing but malice and a lust to kill.

It was faster than it looked, too. Jake dodged its first blow, but was almost caught by the follow-up. Only a desperate sweep with his sword as he ducked saved his head, and he felt the sword writhe in his grasp as the magic attacked it. But his sword was Excalibur; it had been forged in dragon fire, and no magic was going to shatter it so easily.

Jake managed to recover his balance and deflect the next savage blow coming his way. This time he managed to move quickly enough to get a blow of his own in, only to be blocked by the creature's blade. Jake's whole arm fairly rang with the impact; he had hit more yielding rocks, and it was abundantly clear that he wasn't going to win any contests of strength with this thing.

That was OK, though. Jake — or at least Arthur — had plenty of experience in fighting monsters far stronger and nastier than humans. He knew to keep moving, to twist and cut and parry and score the little victories where he could until the cuts he could inflict wore his opponent down. The trouble this time was that the Calvin-monster had the speed to make up for its lack of skill, and every time Excalibur licked out to draw blood it was stopped by the creature's sword. It wasn't tiring at all, and Jake wasn't certain how much longer his body could keep going with the little training he'd had this lifetime.

So time for some trickery, then. Jake allowed the fight to fall into a rhythm; he struck for the monster's chest, then deflected the inevitable counter. Struck at the same area, and deflected. Struck and deflected. The fourth strike he pulled viciously sideways at the last moment, aiming at the sword arm. He hit, but barely, and it seemed like this thing's skin was as hard as iron too. He had time to notice a thin trickle of blood along the line he had scored, then he was ducking low under the counterstrike and praying he could get back to his feet in time.

He rolled back upright, ready to put his all into a parry, when the monster stopped and screamed. Every over-endowed muscle on its body spasmed at once, and Jake was sickened to hear bones crack and flesh tear under the unnatural assault. The magic that had turned Calvin into this thing must have been disrupted by Excalibur's touch, Jake realised, and in running wild it literally tore Calvin apart. In mere seconds all that remained was a bloody mess on the floor that took one last shuddering breath and was still.

Jake turned away, not giving himself time to dwell and probably lose his lunch. There was still Morgana to deal with... except that even as he turned, he saw Tom disarm her and back her up to a pillar. "Now you pay," Tom snarled, nothing like the exuberant young man who had teased Jake through the last few days.

"Tom," Jake said sharply, "this isn't the way."

"It's her fault," Tom grated out, his eyes never leaving Morgana. "Frankie, Warren, Calvin, Steph... Finn." That last was almost whispered. "Everyone who didn't get out in time, it's all her fault they're dead."

"I know," Jake said gently, "but I won't let her claim you too. You know killing her like this isn't the answer."

Morgana's face crumpled into fear. "Jake?" she asked, and that was pure Nancy, Jake realised. "Jake, help me! What's happening? Please," she said to Tom, "I haven't done anything!"

"If you kill her now," Jake told him, "what makes you better than Morgana?"

Tom stared at her for a long moment, then stepped back with an oath. "Sometimes I hate you, sire," he said, and looked over at where Finn lay motionless.

Jake saw the exact moment Morgana took back control and slipped a knife out of somewhere. He launched himself forward, a warning at his lips, knowing that he was too far away to do any good but doing it anyway.

He might as well not have bothered. Tom reacted just as quickly, his sword tracing out a glittering arc, and then Morgana was lying in a pool of blood. Tom winced and pulled the knife out of his leg, where Morgana's dying thrust had managed to lodge it. "Huh," he said, "I thought she'd be tougher."

Jake considered Tom's speed and the way he didn't look at Jake, and realised what had gone on. "You planned that," he said sharply.

Tom shrugged. "I gave her a chance to do the right thing. She didn't. Now she's dead, and precious few will mourn her." He did turn then, and Jake was surprised to see tears trickling down his face despite his even tone. Tom limped over to Finn's body and knelt awkwardly beside it. "Goodbye, old friend," he murmured.

Many more would mourn Finn, Jake realised. It would be only right too, the man had been one of the best knights Jake had seen in any of his lives. If he had been alive in Camelot, Arthur would have been proud to have him sit at the table.

He stepped up and laid a hand on Tom's shoulder. "It's done," he said quietly. "Now it's time for you to go back." Tom started to protest, but Jake held up a hand to stop him. "You're in no condition to fight a sorcerer," he said, indicating Tom's wounded leg, "and he should be out in the sunlight, where he belongs."

Tom bowed his head for a moment. When he looked back, the tears were flowing freely. Tears for everyone Tom had lost, Jake thought, all the family and friends a teenager should have around him that had been torn away from Tom. He squeezed Tom's shoulder reassuringly and helped him rise, Tom cradling Finn's body to him like a baby.

"Go," he said gently. "Justin and I will come when it's all over, and then we can mourn them properly."

It took Jake far too long by his reckoning to get from the Great Hall to what used to be his rooms. He didn't dare hurry too much in case Mordred had left some presents behind, which he had, but they were just delaying tactics and nothing that Jake couldn't handle. Evidently Mordred wanted this last confrontation to be personal.

The chamber, when he reached it, looked nothing like Arthur's old rooms. It was bare stone, colonnaded with pillars, and about as far from the comfortable mess he remembered as Jake could imagine. Justin was huddled behind a pillar, dodging the magical attacks that Mordred sent his way from the centre of the room. Beside Mordred stood a plain waist-high stone table on which a boy of ten or twelve lay unmoving, lines of yellow light dancing over him like malicious sunbeams.

"I was expecting you to be more of a challenge," Mordred said as he casually threw a ball of fire beside Justin's pillar, forcing him from cover. "It's disappointing, really. All you are is just another source of power." He noticed Jake at the doorway and grinned. "And look, you've brought me Arthur. Just when I needed a better connection to the land, too. Seriously, what more could a guy ask for?"

Jake dodged aside from Mordred's mystical bolt, dragging Justin with him into fresh cover. "Well, this is fun," he muttered. "Who's the kid?"

"Charlie," Justin said in quiet, sick tones.

Jake saw red. "What has he done to my son?" he demanded.

Mordred laughed and blew a chunk out of the pillar they were hiding behind. "Oh, how the Pendragon's lapdog has betrayed him this time. You know, it would have been easier if Charlie was your son, then I could have just finished the transformation and been done with it. But no, Justin can't keep his dick in his trousers, so I end up with just power instead. Still, waste not, want not I always say." He blasted another hole in the pillar, leaving the stonework about them creaking ominously.

Jake grabbed Justin roughly by the shirt and bodily hauled him to the next pillar in line. Furious didn't begin to cover what he felt; Charlie was the last thing he had of Bekka, and Justin had ruined that too. He was so angry that he could cheerfully throttle Justin right now... which was exactly what Mordred wanted, wasn't it?

The thought hit him like a bucket of cold water, dousing his anger. Mordred wanted Arthur and Merlin at loggerheads, too furious with each other to do anything about him. And who knew how long Mordred had been in control of Darren. All it would have taken would have been a word here or a sarcastic remark there to get a teenager infatuated with his teacher and a husband jealous of the attention his wife was getting. He was the one who should have seen what was going on; he was supposed to be the reincarnation of this great savvy ruler after all. Justin had just been a kid, was still if Jake was honest about it, and expecting him to overcome teenage hormones and even see that there was a trap there was just unreasonable. It wasn't like Jake had had a clue.

Jake summoned all the reassurance that he could muster, which wasn't a lot in the middle of a magical fire-fight, and tried to look forgiving. "What has he done to _our_ son?" he asked quietly.

Justin looked stunned for a moment, then offered Jake a tentative smile. It didn't last long. "He's woven into the spell," he said, looking down, away, anywhere but at Jake. "Mordred's done something to pull the Other Lands on top of the real world, and he's made Charlie the linchpin that's holding it all together. The strain would tear anyone else apart, thank God the poor kid's unconscious. And there isn't a thing I can do about it."

"Huh? Can't you just..." Jake waggled his hands, "...break the spell?"

Justin shook his head. "Mordred's put everything into this spell. When he draws power now, he draws it through Charlie. And Charlie's my son."

Jake must have looked as uncomprehending as he felt, because Justin sighed and leaned around the pillar to toss a ball of fire at Mordred. Mordred just laughed and closed his hand into a fist, and Jake watched as the fire shrank and snuffed out before it made it even halfway to Mordred, and Justin grimaced and lurched against him. Then both of them ducked back as Mordred threw fire back at them, enough to make the stone pillar too hot to lean against.

"Fuck, that hurts," Justin muttered. "He can literally suck my power out from under any spell I throw at him."

"Right." Jake gripped his sword tightly, steeling himself against what he would have to do. "Can you distract Mordred long enough for me to get close."

Justin shook his head. "It won't work. He had time to set traps all over the floor, and so far he's been fast enough to stop me from breaking any of them. You'd never get within range of him, and Excalibur's no help against that sort of thing. And once he's got you, it's all over."

"Damn." Jake quickly sorted through everything Justin had said to him, looking for alternatives. "Why do I matter? I've not got any magic or anything."

"The king is the land, Pendragon," Mordred shouted. "And I'm getting tired of this game." He destroyed another chunk of pillar, making Jake and Justin duck to avoid the larger fragments of stone.

"He's right," Justin said. "If he gets his hands on you, he can do pretty much anything he likes to Britain, and then we're all sunk."

They crouched lower again as more of the pillar disappeared into an impromptu sandstorm. Mordred wasn't toying with them any more, Jake realised. Not only was he destroying their cover, but the wall of whirling sand was cutting them off from any other hiding places. They had to think of something, and quickly.

"The king is the land," he murmured, an idea slowly forming. "The land is a kind of power itself, isn't it?"

Justin nodded, then seemed to guess what Jake was thinking. "No," he said urgently, keeping his voice low so that Mordred wouldn't hear them over the wind. "I could kill you if I drew too much. We can't risk it."

"We're running out of options," Jake told him. They were running out of cover, too; another minute and Mordred would have the pillar entirely worn away. "You're only going to get one shot at this, so take everything you can. And Justin... I'm sorry." Sorry that it had come to this, that Justin only really had one viable target, that Jake had been such a bastard all this time, that... that everything really. Knowing that there was every chance that neither of them would walk away from this, Jake grabbed Justin and kissed him hard, giving up everything he could to give Justin a few scraps of power that Mordred couldn't suck out of him.

Jake could tell that Justin tried to be gentle, but being a mystical battery hurt. It hurt as badly as anything Jake could remember, and he could remember dying in a variety of unpleasant ways over the centuries. He just about managed to keep it together enough to watch as Justin stood, the winds parting around him, and screamed his defiance at Mordred. Light-headed and nauseous, he saw the moment that Mordred realised that the electric blue bolt headed for him wasn't going to drain away harmlessly. And with a fresh, new pain he watched as Mordred dived aside, allowing the spell to hit its intended target: Charlie.

There was a scream. Jake couldn't tell whose it was, and had the briefest of moments to pray that Charlie hadn't woken up in those final seconds. Then the delicate tracery of Mordred's spell fractured and the world erupted into chaos. Jake felt like he was falling, convinced that he was dying. That was OK; they had saved the world, and Jake couldn't begrudge his life for that. He wished that Justin hadn't had to pay such a high price, killing the son that he had never had a chance to know, and he reached out, blindly trying to reassure Justin if only he could find him...

...and then he really was falling, tumbling down some steps that hadn't been there before together with another body — Justin — and trying desperately not to break his neck before they hit the floor.

Somehow he survived. Jake wasn't quite sure how, but once he stopped moving and figured out which way was up again, he found that he was fundamentally unharmed. Oh, he was bruised like never before and he felt like he had the mother of all hangovers, but no bones were broken and he didn't feel like he was about to fade out of existence either.

It took him a little longer to recognise where he was. When he did, his heart skipped a beat at the realisation. They were on the ground floor of the Loft, next to the service entrance, which had to mean...

"You did it, Justin," he said quietly. "You broke the spell." If Morgana's twisted version of Camelot had turned back into the Loft, then it was over. The thought wasn't much comfort to Jake. They had won, but too late for Josh, for Finn, for all the others Morgana and Mordred had killed over the years. Much too late for Charlie, and Jake's heart broke all over again to think of how his son — their son — had never had a chance in this whole nightmare.

"Yeah," Justin groaned despondently. "I br... I broke..." He couldn't finish, and if Jake thought his heart had broken before it was nothing to what he felt now. Justin would never have the chance to hold their son now, never know for himself what a wonderful thing he had brought into the world, and that hurt Jake beyond bearing.

He reached out and pulled Justin close as Justin broke down and cried. This was what he always should have been doing, Jake realised; Merlin had always been there for Arthur, but he had been so tied up with what a prince should or shouldn't do that he didn't dare show more than glimpses of gratitude. It didn't help that Arthur had no yardstick for what he really felt, not that Jake had been any better in this life.

"Come on," he said eventually, "I promised you we'd get very, very drunk afterwards, if there is anything to drink out there. Besides, you're getting my mail rusty."

They all but fell out of the service entrance together to see Carmel in the act of locking up the front door of _Evissa._ She gave them a strange, concerned look. "Are you alright?" she asked. "Has Warren done something?"

Had Warren...? But he'd seen Warren in flames, back in Morgana's hall. "Carmel, what's the date?" Jake asked. He sounded strangled even to his own ears.

Justin stiffened. "It's the day we disappeared," he said, not waiting for Carmel to answer. "Jake, we're back before it all began. We've got a chance to stop it before it's started." He grabbed Jake's shoulders, looking brilliantly alive and happy despite his tear-stained face. "Where's Charlie?" he demanded.

Jake tried to think who had agreed to babysit for him — was it really only three days ago? "I left him with Nancy, I think. But Justin—"

Jake's attempt to get Justin to calm down and plan things out was utterly sabotaged when Justin pulled him in and kissed him soundly. "Great," Justin said, beamed at him and ran over to the door up to Nancy's flat.

Carmel stared at Jake wide-eyed, clearly unable to think of anything to say to that. Jake gave her a weak smile and shrugged. "He's just excited," he said, then turned to follow Justin. "Hey, wait up, I've got the keys."

They burst into the flat in time to hear Nancy say, "Oh, it's beautiful. It's far too much, Darren, you shouldn't have." She was sitting on the sofa beside a sleepy Charlie, staring into a small box that Darren must have given her, and Jake had a bad feeling about what was in that box.

"Don't touch it," he shouted.

"Jake? What...?" was all Nancy had time to say before Justin strode forward and knocked the box out of her hand. An ornate necklace fell out, one that Jake remembered seeing around Morgana's neck. Definitely not good.

"I've got it," Justin said tersely. Nancy gave a little scream and shrank away from him. Justin took no notice of her; he just knelt and put his hands over the necklace.

"Not on the carpet... oh never mind," Jake said as Justin started chanting. Justin was dealing with Morgana; that left him to deal with Mordred. He drew his sword and turned grimly to Darren.

"Hey, mate," Darren said, raising his hands defensively. "If I'd known you were going to be this jealous, I wouldn't have bought anything."

He sounded nervous, but Jake wasn't fooled. "I'm not buying it, Mordred," he snapped, eyes roving over his step-brother. If only he could figure out how Mordred was possessing Darren...

Darren— Mordred shrugged. "It was worth a try," he said, and sort of pushed towards Jake.

Jake managed to get Excalibur in the way of the spell, but he was still pushed several feet backwards. It stung like hell as well. Jake was willing to bet that if he hadn't managed to parry at least some of the force of the spell he would have been picking himself out of the shelving once he regained consciousness. He charged back, trying to crowd Mordred and not give him time to cast any more spells. It was awkward, too close really for sword work, not that he had room to swing his sword much in the crowded living room anyway.

"Oo, you'll have to do better than that," Mordred mocked, swaying sideways out of the way of Jake's awkward sweep. He managed to get a spell off, but Jake had enough warning to twist below his out-thrust hand.

"How's this then?" Jake snarled. His left hand shot out and grabbed the tastefully understated neck-chain Mordred was wearing, so unlike Darren's traditionally unsubtle bling.

Darren collapsed as Jake tore the jewellery off him, whimpering "Oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god," as he curled into the corner. Good, Jake thought to himself and dropped the wretched thing onto the floor.

Or tried to. His left fist stubbornly refused to unclench and let go. "Not the back-up plan I first thought of," he heard Mordred say inside his head, "but it'll do." Jake redoubled his efforts to drop the jewellery, but he couldn't shake Mordred's control.

"You're mine now, Pendragon," Mordred told him, "and there's nothing you can do about it. Here's what's going to happen. First, we're going to take that lovely sword of yours and stick it through Merlin's heart."

"No." Jake gritted his teeth and tried harder, to no avail. He could slow down the speed Mordred turned his body to face the oblivious Justin, but he couldn't stop it.

"Oh, come on, you can't tell me you haven't thought of it yourself. This morning you'd have been all in favour of it." This morning, that morning, he hadn't known Justin the way he should have all these years, Jake thought angrily. "Once he's out of the way I'll reintroduce you to your sister Morgana — remember her? — and we'll all live happily ever after. Well, Morgana and I will. You'll be locked in a living hell, and that's the least that you deserve."

"I'm not done yet," Jake grated out. Abruptly he stopped trying to oppose Mordred's commands over his body, concentrating instead on making his left fist swing across to slam the pendant against Excalibur's edge.

It wasn't much, but it was enough. Mordred seemed to feel it like a light hit from a sword. The pain and shock were enough to shake Mordred's concentration just for a moment, and a moment was all Jake needed to open his fist and finally, finally let the damn pendant fall.

Jake blinked for a moment, getting his balance back, then quickly reversed his sword so that it was pointing straight down. "Good bye, you bastard," he muttered savagely, and thrust down. The jewellery snapped satisfyingly under his sword point, and the distant scream was music to Jake's ears.

He looked up in time to see Justin's chanting reach its climax. A bright blue light escaped from under Justin's cupped hands, followed by wisps of smoke and another fading scream. "Next time," Jake said with some asperity, "you take on the mad sorcerer and I'll deal with the cursed jewellery."

Justin looked up and grinned at him, and Jake was sure that he had a retort ready on his lips, probably something about Jake wanting to look pretty. Before he said anything, though, he caught sight of baby Charlie lying on the safety of the sofa, staring at everything with big, wide eyes. Justin's face fell, and Jake felt his heart lurch too as Justin shuffled across, not getting off his knees, and swept Charlie up into a hug.

"Jake, what's going on? What just happened?" Nancy was staring at Justin like she couldn't decide what to think. "What's he doing here?"

"Leave him be," Jake told her gently but firmly. "He's had to do the hardest thing anyone could ever have to do, and I had to help him, and..." He paused, choking up as the emotional roller-coaster they had just been through caught up with him. "Somehow we've got this amazing second chance," he continued softly, "and I can't think of anyone who deserves it more."

He sank down beside Justin, gathering him and Charlie into a gentle hug and wishing that this moment could last forever.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue.

"Should I put some more sun-cream on him?"

"Relax, he'll be fine." Jake managed through a truly heroic effort not to roll his eyes. Again. While the summer sun was for once shining brightly, he was fairly sure that the gallon of SPF-100 that Justin had already liberally spread over Charlie would be plenty. Then again, Justin fussing over the toddler was nothing new. He had spent the last two years all but wrapping Charlie in cotton wool to protect him. Jake understood the urge entirely, he just managed to keep a sense of proportion about it.

"I'm sorry, I just worry," Justin said. "At least I'm using all those skills I picked up as your manservant."

Jake looked at him skeptically. "You were a terrible manservant," he observed.

"Don't listen to him," Justin said to the pushchair where Charlie was dozing, exhausted after his afternoon running around the park. "He's just jealous of my bedmaking skills." This time, Jake didn't bother to suppress his eye-roll.

They talked of nothing much as they meandered back to the village, and Jake couldn't help but think how comfortable this all was. With Justin he didn't feel the weight of expectation, the pressure to be out and proving himself all the time. Perhaps it was because Justin knew him so well, through so many lives, but he didn't feel that urgency anymore. They had done their bit for the world, he thought, and now they got to enjoy each other.

"You're doing something this evening, aren't you?" Justin asked after a while.

Jake nodded, steering the pushchair around a young boy who seemed to be trying to look at everything in the street simultaneously. "Dom's had an idea for his local history tours, and he wants us to practice some sword fights." Not that the reincarnation of Sir Leon needed any encouragement to schedule a practice, though really Jake had only himself to blame for letting on that he actually knew how to wield a sword.

A startled gasp interrupted whatever Justin had been going to say. "Sword fights?" the kid they were passing asked, eyes wide. "With real swords and everything?"

"Blunt swords, but yes," Jake admitted. He smiled at the dark-haired youngster, trying to work out where he knew him from.

"Could I have a go?"

The boy was eager, Jake had to give him that, but at ten or so years old he would be hard pushed to lift a real broadsword effectively. Even Arthur hadn't graduated to real weaponry that young, and he had practiced sword-play more or less since he could walk. "We couldn't let you use real weapons," he said gently. "We only use them because we've been practicing for a long time." Centuries, technically.

The youngster looked disappointed, but only briefly. "Could you teach me?" he asked. Jake couldn't help but chuckle at his persistence. He opened his mouth to refuse, but Justin beat him to it.

"Your parents would have to agree to it," Justin said firmly, "and it'll be a lot of hard work. But you know what, I think you might be a natural."

"Really?"

"Like he said, it'll be a lot of hard work," Jake said, giving Justin a very dubious look. Justin had sounded very definite for someone who was still a lousy swordsman. Jake loved him dearly, but Justin's opinions on swords were about as reliable as Jake's opinions about magic.

"Oh, I think Finn here will be up for it."

Finn. Oh. Jake kept the surprise off his face as young Finn, assuming it was him, turned and frowned at Justin. "How did you know my name?"

Justin smiled. "Lucky guess," he replied. "There aren't that many people who've just moved into the area. I'm Justin, by the way, that's Jake, and this is our son, Charlie."

Finn seemed to accept this, including the whole "our son" bit, and turned his attention back to grilling them about swords and sword-fighting. Eventually Jake persuaded him to get his parents to call him if he really wanted to take part, and Finn ran off clutching a business card Justin had pulled out of nowhere.

"I thought we'd agreed not to interfere?" Jake said mildly as they started ambling back home again. It had seemed like the sensible move at the time; once Jack had spirited Excalibur away, presumably back to the cave under the Edge, they didn't exactly have any proof of what had gone on beyond Jake's new self-confidence and Justin's magic, and they had both agreed not to push their luck. Nancy had believed them, had pretty much had to after what she'd seen, and Darren... had recovered, that was about the best they could say. It made Jake feel guilty all over again about how long his step-brother must have been under Mordred's thumb. It just seemed better to leave well alone and not try to force people into patterns that didn't fit the twenty-first century.

Justin shrugged. "It seemed like a good idea. Today must have been the day Mordred started pulling the Other Lands in. Besides, you said yourself that he was the best knight Camelot never had."

"Teaching him archaic weapon skills isn't going to be much help to him in the modern world," Jake pointed out patiently.

"But teaching him honour, teaching him to think, teaching him all those other things you crammed into practice sessions, that's something the modern world needs more of."

A point, Jake thought. Not that he was about to concede that Justin might be right. "Tom's still too young," he insisted, changing tack a little.

"Today's the day he started learning."

"All the more reason to let him have a childhood this time."

Justin didn't seem to have an answer for that, so Jake let himself claim a partial victory. He caught sight of Ste and Josh further down the road, arguing furiously, and sighed.

Justin looked up, saw the pair and scowled. "It's not right," he said. "They belong together."

Jake couldn't disagree, but Josh and Ste seemed just as dead set on hating each other as Jake and Justin had been. Jake had hoped that him and Justin coming together would give them the same push to overcome their hatred as their relationship had given to him, but they barely seemed to notice. It was one of the most frustrating things in Jake's life; he owed them so much for breaking down his homophobia — even with Arthur's memories he would still have shied away from the relationship with Justin that they were meant to have — and there didn't seem to be anything he could do for them.

"Maybe they just aren't meant to be in this lifetime," he suggested. "It took us long enough, remember?"

"This is different," Justin insisted, shaking his head. "Josh wasn't anyone from Arthur's time. This might be the only chance Gwaine gets."

"They'd never believe us," Jake said sadly. "Gwaine always could be a stubborn sod, and Josh isn't any better. We can remember them like we promised, but that's about it."

Justin stopped suddenly. "That's not what we promised," he said slowly.

"Huh? But—"

"I mean, that's not what Josh asked," Justin continued across Jake's confusion. "He didn't ask if we'd remember them, he asked if we'd remember _for_ them. Jake, we can show them our memories!"

"Whoa!" Jake said forcefully. "You can't go messing with people's minds." After what Mordred and Morgana had done to Darren and Nancy, he and Justin had agreed that no one ought to ever go through anything like that again.

The familiar Merlin-enthusiasm in Justin's eyes remained undiminished. "It's not doing anything to their thoughts," he explained, "it's just like showing them a film up close and personal. We can do this; if they see themselves the way we saw them, it's bound to do something. It got through to you and me, after all."

Which was a killer argument, really. "Well," Jake said not entirely happily, "if you're sure it'll be safe for them?"

Justin smiled, and Jake knew that he'd thoroughly lost this argument. The things Justin's smile could make him do...

"Come on," Justin said, "let's go make something beautiful."


End file.
